[X4U] Help with MPEG-4 and iMac

[Eugene]

On Thu, Dec 09, 2004 at 12:16:55AM -0500, B.ru c-e ?K1u-tch-k0 wrote:
: On 12/8/04 10:39 AM, "Michael Winter" <winter at mac.com> wrote:
: > On Dec 8, 2004, at 9:15 AM, B.ru c-e €K1u-tch-k0 wrote:
: >>
: >>  I can play back the video on the Mac using VLC, which has the MPEG-4
: >> codec that QuickTime doesn't.
: > 
: > If its MPEG-4, QuickTime should handle it unless its in some funny kind
: > of wrapper. First thing I would do is start playing it in VLC and
: > select "Info" from the "Window" menu. I'm guessing there should be two
: > streams, one audio and one video. Both need to be something Quicktime
: > can handle (preferable both mp4 based).
: 
: Playing the file in VLC results in Stream 1 video codec M4S2 and Stream 0
: Audio. 

There are several MPEG-4 codecs around.  The "m4s2" thing is M$'s MPEG-4
codec, more specifically "ISO MPEG4 v1.1".  

: > If it looks like it is a legitimate MPEG-4 file, my next questions are
: > what happens when you try to get QuickTime Player to play it and what
: > three letter extension (if any) is on the file? If the file doesn't
: > have an .mp4 on the end of the filename, try putting one there and see
: > if it will now play in QuickTime Player.
: 
: The file extension is .asf. The camera manual describes the encoding as
: MPEG4. Changing the extension to .mp4 causes Quicktime to attempt to open
: the file, but results in an error message : Either "IMG001.mp4" contains no
: 'moov' atom, or the file has been corrupted. The file plays well in VLC if
: the extension is .asf.

M$'s mp4s/m4s2 codecs may not have been ported to QuickTime and so
encoded movies not be recognized by anything using built-in QuickTime
frameworks.

: >>  I???d prefer to make a VCD, as I don???t have a DVD writer on my ancient
: >> iMac, so I???d like to convert it to another format. The quality of the
: >> pictures (limited pixels, low sensitivity of the camera) means that
: >> itonly has VHS or VCD quality anyway.
: > 
: > I use Toast 6 to do this. Ironically, it seems to handle some video
: > files that QuickTime Player balks on.
: 
: I'll give Toast a try, but I'm not certain what would happen if I burn an
: MP4 file to a VCD.

Techncially, you can't.  VCDs use MPEG-1 (and SVCDs use MPEG-2).
To burn that MPEG-4 file to VCD-compatible format would require a
conversion to MPEG-1.


-- 
Eugene Lee
http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/