Audio OK, Video Wonky
August 11, 2010 8:31 AM Subscribe
Why won't my cellphone videos play on my computer?
Blackberry videos in regular BB 3GP format -- no problem uploading/playing them on YouTube, but when I try to play them on my computer using Quicktime, all I can see are squiggly lines. Audio works fine, it's just the video that's wonky. Screenshot. Any thoughts?
Blackberry videos in regular BB 3GP format -- no problem uploading/playing them on YouTube, but when I try to play them on my computer using Quicktime, all I can see are squiggly lines. Audio works fine, it's just the video that's wonky. Screenshot. Any thoughts?
Response by poster: Burhanistan - hate using BB desktop stuff - too bloaty! But that probably would work.
sharkfu: bingo! I've had VLC installed for a while, but never thought to associate it w/ my 3GP videos - worked like a charm!
Thanks!
posted by davidmsc at 9:02 AM on August 11, 2010
sharkfu: bingo! I've had VLC installed for a while, but never thought to associate it w/ my 3GP videos - worked like a charm!
Thanks!
posted by davidmsc at 9:02 AM on August 11, 2010
FYI, 3GP is a container format, not any specific kind of audio or video type -- it defines a way of encapsulating and combining a/v streams, but not anything about the particular details of those streams. What that means is that saying you have a 3GP file doesn't say anything about what format the video is encoded in (and therefore the codec necessary to play the file), because 3GP files can contain h.263, MPEG-4 Part 2, or h.264 video streams, representing a wide array of various encoding options/profiles. This is the same with all the other container formats like .avi, .mov/.mp4, .mkv, .flv, etc. The reason for making this distinction is that you can really only start to diagnose playback problems by knowing the actual format of the video, not the type of file in which it's contained.
posted by Rhomboid at 9:21 AM on August 11, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Rhomboid at 9:21 AM on August 11, 2010 [1 favorite]
To find out the contents of a container, you use MediaInfo.
Usually, if you're missing a codec, the easiest and best way to get it (and everything else) is to install the Combined Community Codec Pack.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:54 AM on August 11, 2010
Usually, if you're missing a codec, the easiest and best way to get it (and everything else) is to install the Combined Community Codec Pack.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:54 AM on August 11, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by sharkfu at 8:45 AM on August 11, 2010