An error message would be nice. Throw me a bone, Apple!
April 20, 2010 10:48 AM   Subscribe

Does Quartz Composer have a maximum allowable file size for working with videos?

I'm using the Movie Importer patch and large videos refuse to play. I had no trouble with a 16-minute, 249.6 MB file, but a 7-hour, 534.6 MB file doesn't work. The patch acts like I don't have a file selected at all: it doesn't output an image or a duration value like it's supposed to. I tried a variety of formats (.mp4, .m4v, .avi) and a variety of frame rates and resolutions. All of my test videos played fine in Quicktime Player (I use Perian, which may explain .avi compatibility... I don't think that's supported natively).

I can't find anything in the docs about file size or duration limits. What am I missing? I posted this question over on the Apple support forum but it's been four days and nobody's responded. So I figured I'd ask the hive mind.

Also... If this is indeed the problem, is there a free way to slice up the big videos into smaller pieces? I've tried MPEG Streamclip but it either crashes or exports an empty file, depending on the settings I try. Pretty disappointing. I'm on Snow Leopard if it matters.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)
 
I'm not sure, but given the fact that your file is twice as big but 28 times longer, it may be a low-bitrate issue? You could try transcoding with ffmpegx to make sure it's the right format/container.
posted by CharlesV42 at 12:09 PM on April 20, 2010


Response by poster: Good idea, I'll try that. What would some ideal settings be, anyway? Is there anything that's, um, especially well-suited for Quartz Composer?
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 12:47 PM on April 20, 2010


You might want to try Apple's Quartz Composer developer mailing list, or over at Kineme.net which has an extremely active Quartz Composer community.

I've played some fairly large files with QC with no trouble, but I usually use Vade's movie player:
http://002.vade.info/?page_id=13
posted by jackofsaxons at 8:42 PM on April 21, 2010


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