Anyone know why Quicktime occasionally plays only part of the mpeg files? It seems to be at the end, until you back it up. Then more of the video appears. Anyone know what that is all about?
This usually means that the file is not really mpeg, but instead is one of the bastard children of "divx", which was Microsoft's proposal for the MPEG 4 standard. It resembles mpeg, but there were big issues with it (it was only a demo, and not intended for real use) and a whole bunch of people tried to solve those issues in different ways resulting in a horrible mess of mutually incompatible formats.
The solution is to use one of the players that was made as a bundle of these codecs such as VLC or MPlayer. Because those players are made specifically to handle that mess, they should do fine. QuickTime handles real MPEG stream beautifully, but Apple has not really made any attempt at working with the MPEG pretenders, mostly because in doing so they run a real risk of stepping on some of Microsoft's patents in that area (VLC and MPlayer are small enough that they simply don't care about those legal problems, Apple is too big a target, and has to keep clean in order to negotiate with the RIAA for iTunes content).
I'm with Karl. I've seen those, and they've all been the product of badly stitched together individual MPEGs, where the final result isn't a true adherent to the standard, but 'kinda close'. QuickTime's codecs demand standards compliance, while other folks have written codecs that work around the bugs in other systems. VLC is one such player that can handle these bastard MPEGs.
If it happens to be "timecode breaks", how does one solve that issue?
Only simple way I know is through MPEG Streamclip. There are other programs that could do it but I don't know of anything else that's free.
Edit: As an aside if it is a timecode break VLC doesn't fix it. You'll still have the same problem where it seems to get to the end but in fact doesn't although usually it will keep playing while QT just stops.
Talk about pedantic. He did say "just about every..." not "absolutely every."
Windows Media 9 is the default media format of the vast majority of computers on the market today. Real Media is a favorite alternative commercial format to Windows Media. If you leave out these two formats, you don't have "just about everything under the sun."
WMV9 may be the default codec installed on the players, but it certainly isn't the default for content, that I've seen. VLC plays all but a *TINY* fraction of files I can find.
Content is what matters, not player installation, and MPEG (particularly 4) is increasing in my experience,
Comments
The solution is to use one of the players that was made as a bundle of these codecs such as VLC or MPlayer. Because those players are made specifically to handle that mess, they should do fine. QuickTime handles real MPEG stream beautifully, but Apple has not really made any attempt at working with the MPEG pretenders, mostly because in doing so they run a real risk of stepping on some of Microsoft's patents in that area (VLC and MPlayer are small enough that they simply don't care about those legal problems, Apple is too big a target, and has to keep clean in order to negotiate with the RIAA for iTunes content).
VLC = ?
If it happens to be "timecode breaks", how does one solve that issue?
VLC Player. The one app that will play just about everything under the sun.
I say a daily prayer to all the folks on the VLC project. Great guys.
Originally posted by ZO
www.videolan.org
VLC Player. The one app that will play just about everything under the sun.
I say a daily prayer to all the folks on the VLC project. Great guys.
VLC does not play Real media. VLC does not play Windows Media 9 or Windows Media 10.
Originally posted by LotharSNL
If it happens to be "timecode breaks", how does one solve that issue?
Only simple way I know is through MPEG Streamclip. There are other programs that could do it but I don't know of anything else that's free.
Edit: As an aside if it is a timecode break VLC doesn't fix it. You'll still have the same problem where it seems to get to the end but in fact doesn't although usually it will keep playing while QT just stops.
Originally posted by Mr. Me
VLC does not play Real media. VLC does not play Windows Media 9 or Windows Media 10.
Talk about pedantic. He did say "just about every..." not "absolutely every."
Originally posted by Kesh
Talk about pedantic. He did say "just about every..." not "absolutely every."
Windows Media 9 is the default media format of the vast majority of computers on the market today. Real Media is a favorite alternative commercial format to Windows Media. If you leave out these two formats, you don't have "just about everything under the sun."
Content is what matters, not player installation, and MPEG (particularly 4) is increasing in my experience,