Playing Motion JPEG

Question

Playing Motion JPEG

I have an old analog capture card on my PC (miro dc20). I would like to be able to play these motion jpeg files on my mac and edit them as well. Usually you can just download a motion jpeg codec for the pc and it will play these old files. What is the solution for my mac so I can throw the old frozen TV dinner box they call a pc out the window?

Posted on Oct 23, 2005 8:39 PM

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Answer 1

F Shippey

Level 7

21,500 points

Oct 23, 2005 9:57 PM in response to John C. Giambrone

QuickTime supports the .AVI motion JPEG movies that I have.

Have you tried playing your files with QuickTime? What file extension do they have?

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Answer 2

Oct 24, 2005 2:42 PM in response to John C. Giambrone

Yes I'm aware that quicktime plays avi files. It has an .avi extention but will not play because it needs the correct compressor. Usually on a pc by just installing a generic motion jpeg compressor such as "mainconcept" does the trick.

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Answer 3

F Shippey

Level 7

21,500 points

Oct 24, 2005 2:48 PM in response to John C. Giambrone

.AVI is just a file wrapper. QuickTime supports some .AVI files that use CODECS included in QuickTime (but not all possible compression CODECS are included).

QuickTime contains a generic Motion JPEG CODEC.

Open one of your files in QuickTime and then select Window>Show Movie Info in the menu bar.

What is the video format shown?

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Answer 4

Oct 24, 2005 3:19 PM in response to John C. Giambrone

The format is "Motion JPEG OpenDML, 640 x 480, Millions Integer (little endian), Stereo, 44100 Hz, 16 bits

Movie FPS: 29.95
Playing FPS: (available when playing)
Data Size: 523.7 MB
Data Rate: 2.1 MB/sec

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Answer 5

F Shippey

Level 7

21,500 points

Oct 24, 2005 3:31 PM in response to John C. Giambrone

The motion JPEG files I can play say the same thing: Motion JPEG OpenDML, 640x480, Millions

My audio is Unsigned integer, Mono, 110245hz, 8 bits

What is "(little endian)"?

If you are unable to play your files, another possible difference I can think of is I have QuickTime Pro (both 6 on this machine and 7 on my PowerBook)

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Answer 6

Oct 24, 2005 10:20 PM in response to John C. Giambrone

I have no idea what the "little endian" thing is. The original compressor is a MIRO (now pinnacle) DC-20 motion JPEG. It was originally released for windows 95. I was able to get the files to play on my newer PC running XP by installing the MainConcept motion JPEG codec without installing the miro capture card. There must be a way to do this on the mac.

I too am running QT Pro. I'm sure I can convert everything over on the PC side to something like cinipak but that will take forever.

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Answer 7

Oct 25, 2005 3:35 AM in response to John C. Giambrone

Little endian refers to the position that a number begins in the data. That is, little endian starts in bit 0 and ends at bit 7 for a one byte data word. Big endian would start at bit 7 and end at bit 0. Or maybe I have it reversed. In any case, that is what the endian thing refers to.

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Answer 8

Oct 29, 2005 5:08 PM in response to John C. Giambrone

I still haven't found a solution to my original problem. My darn PC is really *&^%ing me off. They should just rename them to Swanson or Stophers.

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Answer 9

Oct 31, 2005 7:10 AM in response to John C. Giambrone

I found a workaround solution for my problem. It won't allow me to play my old files but if I just convert them on my PC to a .mov in DV format, the results are perfect. It stinks because I have about 500 music videos in the old format and they will all have to be converted. I'll just convert as I go I guess. I'm still curious if there is a codect though. My G5 will encode alot faster than my 450 mhz Dell 🙂

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Answer 10

khutch

Level 1

0 points

Nov 26, 2005 11:43 PM in response to John C. Giambrone

Hi John, I have same problem though its only one but one important movie recorded using a DC20 in 1997 on a 9600/350 mac. Would like it to run on my G5 in imovie. When you have converted to .mov on your PC, can you then use that .mov file on your mac? Lastly, if you hear of any breakthru solution yo our problem please let me know via tangent@wbs.co.za and I will do same.
Thanks. Keith

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