"Additional software is required"

Question

Level 2

171 points

"Additional software is required"

This message appears when trying to play a QuickTime movie I just downloaded:

"Additional software is required to playback this media. It may be available from the QuickTime Components page. Make sure your internet network connection is active, then click to continue button to check for the software"

Clicking the continue button launches me into a page that lists several products: CC, Divx, Xvid, Zygo, ACT-L3, FBX, Sheervideo, QSXE, Ensharpen and Encode Raw.

And there all user guidance stops. It leaves me there looking at a list of ten or so products, of which I know nothing.

What am I supposed to do? Download them all? Or do I need only one? Which one?

Very perplexing. I wish Apple would make this QuickTime message more informative, and tell not only THAT software is needed, but also WHAT software is needed. I'm not psychic. This dialog must break several rules of good user interface design.

-Ron.

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Posted on Apr 15, 2008 5:00 AM

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Answer 1

varjak paw

Level 10

170,206 points

Apr 15, 2008 7:46 AM in response to Ronald Pieket

QuickTime isn't psychic either; all it can determine is that it doesn't have the plugin needed to play the content. Since it can't recognize the content, it can't tell you what it needs to play it. Launch QuickTime Player, open the movie, and select the Movie Inspector. The look at "format" and post back here with the info.

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Answer 2

Ronald Pieket Author

Level 2

171 points

Apr 16, 2008 8:42 AM in response to varjak paw

QuickTime doesn't have to be psychic, it only needs to read the MOV wrapper. After all it KNOWS what plugin it is looking for. Otherwise how would it know it isn't there?

Internal dialog:

+"Oh now, I have a MOV media wrapper. Let's see what codec I need for this media. Ah look, the wrapper says I need codec XYZ. Let's see if codec XYZ is installed. Oh no, codec XYZ isn't there! Let's tell the user that I could not find codec XYZ. Or rather - let's not tell him it was codec XYZ I was looking for. Let's just call it 'additional software' and leave him to guess."+

I did not know about the "Movie Inspector" feature. It says:

'WMA2', Stereo, 32.000 kHz
'WMV3', 320 x 240, Millions

It was too much trouble to put that essential information in the "needs additional software" message.

-Ron.

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Answer 3

varjak paw

Level 10

170,206 points

Apr 16, 2008 8:59 AM in response to Ronald Pieket

No, it does not know the format. All it knows is that the format doesn't match up with any of the codecs it currently has and so is directing to a generic web page. Whether or not it would be possible for QT Player to be engineered to read the format metadata, parse it, determine what codec is needed of the many, many possibilities, figure out what it is (the metadata usually isn't terribly informative, and may have multiple possibilities), and present that to the user I don't know, but it's not trivial. Plus from a marketing and legal issue they may have chosen not to direct specifically to formats that they do not support and haven't licensed. You can comment to Apple through their feedback pages.

WMV is Windows Media Video. WMA is Windows Media Audio. Both are Microsoft formats. Try the Flip4Mac codec. But even with the Flip4Mac codec, the movie will not work in iTunes, only in QuickTime Player unless you convert to one of the formats iTunes understands.

Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer

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Answer 4

Ronald Pieket Author

Level 2

171 points

Apr 18, 2008 5:38 AM in response to varjak paw

Dave Sawyer wrote:
Whether or not it would be possible for QT Player to be engineered to read the format metadata, parse it, determine what codec is needed of the many, many possibilities, figure out what it is (the metadata usually isn't terribly informative, and may have multiple possibilities), and present that to the user I don't know, but it's not trivial.

But Apple are the developers of the QuickTime container format, aren't they? They can make the format include a plain ascii field to describe the codec.

-Ron.

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Answer 5

varjak paw

Level 10

170,206 points

Apr 18, 2008 8:08 AM in response to Ronald Pieket

That's what the Inspector is for. But if you feel that Apple should echo that information elsewhere, suggest it to them through the feedback page link I posted above.

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