Damn mac codecs

Otobe · Post by **Otobe** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 3:07 pm

I have a .mov file containing a graphic arts project that my girlfriend did at school. Unfortuantely they use macs at her school so this file was created using iMovie. I can't seem to play it back on my PC. I downloaded the most recent version of quicktime, but i still get an error saying that it is a file that quicktime does not understand. My first thought was that i just dont have the right codec, but i have no idea where to find this mystery codec that i need. Any suggestions?

Kaji01 · Post by **Kaji01** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 3:20 pm

Man, haven't used a mac since system 8.1...Go back to using them in an instant if I had the money to, but that's a side issue...

It wouldn't be possible to get the information from your girlfriend on it, would it? Make certain that it's not some proprietary format or anything of that sort. Macs don't use extensions the way PCs do (unless something's changed in the past 4 years on that, which I doubt), so the .mov could very well have been something that got stuck at the end arbitrarily so that the PC would recognize it as a movie of some sort, as opposed to a random unidentifiable file.

risk one · Post by **risk one** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 3:48 pm

Quicktime doesn't use the windows codecs. You could try converting it to avi with something like EOvideo (be careful not to recompress though). At least then you could check what the codec is.

Otobe · Post by **Otobe** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 4:01 pm

it was created using Imovie's default quicktime output settings. I tried EO video but it could only tell me that the file was corupted or didn't have the right codec installed

Red Wolf · Post by **Red Wolf** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 9:00 pm

Without knowing exactly what settings she used it is hard to tell what to do. The default setting in iMovie is an email sized movie

A QuickTime movie file using the QuickTime codec would play back on QuickTime for Windows. If she has access to the Mac again I would do two things:

1. Try to play it back on the Mac. If there is a problem it's the file, not the codec.

2. If it does play back try exporting it as as a QuickTime Movie with the video settings set to use Sorenson Video (assuming there is a file size issue) and audio as uncompressed. That is a "standard" format for QuickTime movies. If file size isn't an issue, or it is a really short video, go uncompressed on both video and audio to lessen codec issues.