Error Playing Movie

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Level 1

0 points

Error Playing Movie

I have a new iphone that I bought and activated in the States. Im now located in China and will be here for a couple of months. When I go to YouTube on the main screen, the iphone takes me there. When I attempt to play any movie I get an error message of "Error Playing Movie".

I have a wifi connection where I live and I am able to access and play youtube vids on my laptop without any problems. I am connected to the same wifi on my iphone and it shows the little wave icon next to the China Mobile carrier name and is active...and I can surf the Internet.

In trying to troubleshoot, I also connected to Itunes and did a iphone restore. It didn't do anything.

Is there an official fix to this problem? Or is my iphone just broken? Anyone have any ideas....thanks!

iphone, Other OS, v 1.1.1

Posted on Nov 12, 2007 1:37 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 12, 2007 4:01 AM in response to rinshanghai

Movies on youtube must be formatted in the h264 format for the iPhone to be able to play them.

only 10% or less are formatted for the iPhone.

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Answer 2

rinshanghai Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 12, 2007 4:31 AM in response to Eric Wilson6

Thanks for your response, but could you or anyone mind pointing me to just one video on youtube that fits this criteria, so I can see that it works? The display iphone at the AT&T store allowed me to watch several random videos and they all seemed to work..in fact, I can't recall even seeing that error message and I was playing around with it for at least 45 minutes.

With my iphone, I've tried to view well over 100 videos and not one plays, and I just keep getting that "error playing movie" message.

I'm not sure it makes much sense to have an option on the iphone for youtube when less than 10% even work...unless there's a bigger plan for it to work in the future.

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Answer 3

DaVBMan

Level 6

9,280 points

Nov 12, 2007 4:37 AM in response to rinshanghai

If you are using the YouTube app on the phone (and not browsing to the youtube site via Safari) then every video you see in the YouTube App should work.

I would suggest a reboot (not just turning off and on the phone as that doesn't really turn it off, just puts it to sleep)

To reboot:

Go to home screen
Once there, press and hold the Home Button
While holding the Home Button, press and hold the Lock button.
Continue holding both.
It will say slide to turn off (DON'T let go, keep holding both).
In a few seconds, it will turn off, (Keep Holding Buttons)
You will then see the Apple Logo. You can let go now.

That is a full reboot.

Once started up, try again.

Finally remember you are in China and from the reports/news I keep hearing, they have a habit of blocking content on the web. So going through any ISP located there, you are playing by their rules....they may not like YouTube surfing, but I really don't know. Just something else to add as a thought.

Message was edited by: DaVBMan

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Answer 4

Nov 12, 2007 4:46 AM in response to rinshanghai

I would say it's a problem with the Chinese ISP blocking content, but you say that you can view YouTube on your laptop. I'd try a reset of your iPhone. Do you have any trouble accessing any websites on Safari?

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Answer 5

rinshanghai Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 12, 2007 5:53 AM in response to Metalastic

Thanks for the help attempts. I reset the iphone and it still does the same thing.

It's also is definitely not a "blocking content" issue, because I just ran a test and was able to go to Youtube on my laptop and watch any video I selected. When attempting the same vids on the iphone, I get that same error message.

I called Apple Support and they had no idea and told me that they only support using the iphone in the US. I'm a little surprised they told me to call AT&T about it instead of researching it further. I seriously think AT&T will be even less inclined to have an answer since their support clearly does not cover the device itself....kind of frustrating when you have a new, cool toy but it doesn't work right and I also got locked into paying $80 something extra a month so I could use email and surf the Net internationally....ok now I'm venting, but if anyone has any other ideas, please let me know. Thanks!

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Answer 6

rinshanghai Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 12, 2007 6:33 AM in response to rinshanghai

Little update for others who might have had the same problem. I blocked the wifi entirely so the "E" was displayed (in my case connected to China Mobile) and the videos worked!

So there must be something set up on my wireless wifi that blocks video playing from the iphone. Any thoughts? Anyone? Bueller?

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Answer 7

spriter

Level 3

675 points

Nov 30, 2007 11:46 PM in response to rinshanghai

From reading other sites and Googling around, it seems Google or PRC are blocking the videos from playing on iPhone in mainland China via wifi. Crazy, since you can view them on a laptop perfectly fine.

In Beijing, on my MacBook, I can view any YT video (at least since it was unblocked by the government not so long ago). Now, when I share my ethernet connection via Airport and connect my iPhone via wifi, it can browse YT.app videos, search, see Top Rated, etc. but attempting to play always results in the "Error playing movie" message. Really stupid since the connection is the exact same - my iPhone online via my MacBook.

People have suggested the videos are incompatible as YT are updating the videos to H.264 but that's definitely not the case, they're simply being blocked - absolutely none work for me. When I was in Hong Kong a few weeks ago, it was not an issue.

I tried NetShade (a proxy program) which can get around some of China's blocking but not this YT on iPhone.

By the way, could you point me to the China Mobile EDGE settings?

Regards,
spriter

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Answer 8

Dec 19, 2007 10:11 PM in response to spriter

If you're an user with China Mobile, you can get EDGE access with existing GPRS access.

To enable EDGE access on the iPhone, go into Settings > General > Network > EDGE, and input "cmnet" for APN. Leave both Username and Password blank.

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