Problem playing iMovie imported video (.MOV format) on a PC

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Level 1

5 points

Problem playing iMovie imported video (.MOV format) on a PC

Hello,

I'm fairly new to Macs and am having a problem with video imported with iMovie.

We had a new 24" 3.06 iMac (with all the latest iLife and Leopard software updates) at work for a few weeks. I had taken some camcorder footage and imported it with iMovie with no problems. iMovie imported them as .mov files, all of which played perfectly from both within the iMovie program, and directly through the Quicktime program (by double-clicking the .mov file itself).

Well, the iMac ended up getting sent to another office so I had to back-up all the imported movies I put on it - and move them to the PC (ugh...I know).

I manually copied all the .mov files from the User/Video folder on the iMac to a couple DVD's (as data files not actually burned movies). My intent was to eventually get a program for the PC like Adobe Premier or Pinnacle to convert the .mov files to a more PC-friendly file format.
On the PC, I downloaded the latest version of Quicktime for Windows (along with iTunes). Unfortunately I cannot get the movies to play through Quicktime at all on the PC - the movie seems to play (timer runs and the little triagle moves), but all I get is a blank screen.
The first time I tried to play one of the files, QT told me I may need to download additional codecs (although it did not indicate which one) - and directed me to the third-party codec download site. However, after downloading several of the different codecs, the .mov files still won't play through QT on the PC.

Is it not possible to get these files to play on a PC since they were imported and made on an iMac with iMovie? Any Apple experts out there have any idea what else I might try?

I'm not sure if this is an iMovie related issue (since I used iMovie to import the movie files) or if this is a Quicktime issue - so I apologize for the double-post.

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Sully

Message was edited by: R72Sully

Message was edited by: R72Sully

24-inch iMac Intel, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Aug 2, 2008 10:45 PM

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Answer 1

Jon Walker

Level 6

19,467 points

Aug 3, 2008 5:00 AM in response to R72Sully

Unfortunately I cannot get the movies to play through Quicktime at all on the PC - the movie seems to play (timer runs and the little triagle moves), but all I get is a blank screen... The first time I tried to play one of the files, QT told me I may need to download additional codecs (although it did not indicate which one) - and directed me to the third-party codec download site. However, after downloading several of the different codecs, the .mov files still won't play through QT on the PC.
Rule of Thumb: never download codec components arbitrarily. Since the files load into the QT Player, what you should have done was open the "Inspector" window and check the "Format:" entry to see which codec was used to compressed the video and then download the "correct" QT codec component and only the needed one.

Is it not possible to get these files to play on a PC since they were imported and made on an iMac with iMovie?
I would tend to suspect that you may be using an HDD or DVD camcorder here. Basically, the MOV file container is generic and can hold any valid combination of audio and video compression formats. DV would have imported as DV content. AVCHD or HDV would have imported as AIC/AIFF content which is normally supported intrinsically by QT. On the other hand, the content from MPEG2/AC3 based camcorders employs a special iMovie '08 import/conversion module which converts the AC3 to AIFF and the MPEG-2 "P-frames" and "B-frames" to "I-frames" which effectively turns the video into an M-JPEG track but leaves it labeled as MPEG-2 content which would likely confuse the QT Player. Further, if iLife '08 itself installs the playback component for this compression combination, you may not be able to locate/install a Windows version of this playback codec at all and may end up having to convert your DVD stored MOV files on an iLife '08 equipped Mac.

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Answer 2

R72Sully Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 3, 2008 10:15 AM in response to Jon Walker

Thanks so much for the help and info. I had no idea there were so many different codecs and ways for iMovie to convert the files.

The camcorder was a JVC hard-disk-drive camcorder (no tape) - but its just regular resolution (not High Def).

In "Movie Inspector", under Format it gives me the following info:

'm2v1', 853x480, millions
16-bit integer (Little Endian), Left, 48.000 kHz
16-bit integer (Little Endian), Right, 48.000 kHz

Will any of this info give me an idea of the codec needed and whether or not there may be a PC version?

Thanks again for any help you can give,

Sully

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Answer 3

Jon Walker

Level 6

19,467 points

Aug 3, 2008 11:19 AM in response to R72Sully

'm2v1', 853x480, millions
16-bit integer (Little Endian), Left, 48.000 kHz
16-bit integer (Little Endian), Right, 48.000 kHz
Okay, that probably settles it. I'm not even sure which MPEG/MPEG-2 Mac QT component handles these files but I am reasonably sure that any Windows media player will look at the "m2v1" FourCC and try to use a standard MPEG-2 codec which I assume from your previous statements will not work. And, since the converter used to create these files is exclusively used on Mac platforms with iLife '08 installed, I doubt there is any such thing as a Windows QT component for their playback and/or conversion on a PC. My best guess is that you are "locked out" on your current machine. (I.e., you need a codec that will look at the 'm2v1' FourCC but handle it like an MOV file with Motion-JPEG video and two channels of AIFF audio.) You can, of course try various PC multimedia players/converters and hope to find one that will work. However, I would not hold out a lot of hope. (I.e., this is like trying to get VLC to play my custom H.264/AAC files. It would play either audio or video independently, but would not play my file if both tracks were present in the same file at one time.)

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Answer 4

R72Sully Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 3, 2008 12:35 PM in response to Jon Walker

Alrighty....so it looks like I'm probably locked out (so to speak) from using these .mov files on a PC.

The iMac the movies were imported on is at our other office, so I could probably borrow it for a couple days. Would I be able to do anything with these files if I got temporary access to the iMac with iLife? Can I copy the .mov files from the back-up discs back to the iMac? If so, then is there a way to convert them to a standard or PC-friendly format from the iMac itself?

Thanks again for all the help. I'm just trying to figure a usable work-around. Hopefully in a month or two I'll be able to get an iMac for the house, but right now I'm stuck with the PC and really need to get these video files usable again.

Sully

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Answer 5

Jon Walker

Level 6

19,467 points

Aug 3, 2008 4:41 PM in response to R72Sully

Would I be able to do anything with these files if I got temporary access to the iMac with iLife?
Yes.

Can I copy the .mov files from the back-up discs back to the iMac?
Yes.

If so, then is there a way to convert them to a standard or PC-friendly format from the iMac itself?
Yes.
Once you have access to any Mac with iLife installed, you can convert the files to another, less restrictive compression format. Since say the files are standard definition, DV would likely be a good format for most platforms with file-level video editors. The files, however, can be somewhat large probably about 2.0-2,5 times the size they currently are. or you could simply export them as M-JPEG with AIFF audio and the files would remain about the same but be properly identified as such. QT Pro (if you have it) or MPEG Streamclip (free download) would be my first choice for conversion but GarageBand will also work. If you have the Flip4Mac encoder installed you could also export to WMV if you prefer. Same goes for DivX, 3ivX, Xvid, etc. Basically you can convert to whatever format meets your needs as long as you have the proper QT components installed. However, remember these other formats are not specifically designed for editing like DV is.

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Answer 6

blakwido

Level 1

0 points

Aug 4, 2008 3:59 AM in response to Jon Walker

I've had the same problem with footage from my Sony TG3 so glad I came across this thread.

One additional question for you though as you seem to know your stuff. What format for conversion would you recommend for HD footage that I'd like to play/edit on a PC?

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Answer 7

Jon Walker

Level 6

19,467 points

Aug 4, 2008 5:39 AM in response to blakwido

What format for conversion would you recommend for HD footage that I'd like to play/edit on a PC?
Refer to the specific instructions that came with the particular editor you plan to use and go with the compression format in which your particular application edits "natively." Another way of saying this is to export the the same format that your editor would convert your files to if you import in a non-edit compatible compression format. For instance, iMovie '08 would convert HDV or AVCHD files to AIC/AIFF for editing. The idea here is to simply avoid an unnecessary re-conversion later.

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Answer 8

R72Sully Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 7, 2008 11:21 PM in response to Jon Walker

I've been out of town for the last few days, but I just wanted to say "Thanks!" for all the help and info on my issue.

I tried to find an M-JPEG codec for windows to see if that would work....but no such luck. It seems like all I get out of QT is just audio....but no video. I was able to get the video to play back using the latest version of Nero for windows...but all I got was video with no audio. It's enough to make you crazy. 🙂

I may try to see if I can get ahold of the iMac from work over the weekend and see if I can export those files into DV format or regular mpeg2.

I'm sure I'll end up with questions on how best to accomplish that taks. 🙂

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