No Cinepak in 10.6???

Question

Level 1

0 points

No Cinepak in 10.6???

Hi everyone,

I normally use the Apple Cinepak codec to encode films I'm working on (as a composer) to keep the CPU overhead low and keep the file a reasonable size (for playback in Logic Pro). In 10.6 this codec has disappeared. I've loaded Quicktime 7 but it still seems to be missing. Does anyone have any idea how I can get it back?

TIA,

Martin

MacBook Pro (late 2006), Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jan 17, 2010 10:39 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Nick Holmes

Level 7

30,018 points

Jan 17, 2010 2:24 PM in response to mosso

System Preferences > QuickTime > Advanced > Show legacy encoders.

Reply

Answer 2

mosso Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 18, 2010 4:04 AM in response to Nick Holmes

Thanks very much Nick but Quicktime doesn't appear in my System Preferences. I've tried checking the preferences in Quicktime 7 without any success and there are no preferences for Quicktime 10.

I can play back mov files encoded using Cinepak fine, but I can't encode using it.

Any more ideas?

Thanks again,

Martin

Reply

Answer 3

Nick Holmes

Level 7

30,018 points

Jan 18, 2010 9:05 AM in response to mosso

Depending on how you upgraded to Mac OS x 10.6, QuickTime 7 is either missing or in your Applications/Utilities folder. If you don't have it, pop your 10.6 disc in the computer.
The QuickTime 7 installer is in the "Optional Installations" folder.

Reply

Answer 4

mosso Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 19, 2010 2:54 AM in response to Nick Holmes

Hi Nick and thanks again for replying. I've already installed Quicktime 7 after installation of 10.6. I did a search for the term 'legacy encoders' on the forum and found other people saying the same as me - basically there is no longer a Quicktime pane in the System Preferences and no way to turn the legacy encoders back on.

I can only hope that the powers that be realise that some of us would like to have a choice of which codecs we'd like to use.

Since I can no longer encode with Cinepak (other than booting from my clone drive made BEFORE the UPgrade - that's progress for you) can you suggest a difference codec suitable for my purpose? I've been trying the ProRes 422 codec but it uses a slightly bigger CPU overhead.

Many thanks,

Martin

Reply

Answer 5

Feb 3, 2010 8:21 AM in response to mosso

I had a similar problem recently. Cinepak disappeared from the compressor options in Quicktime 7 even though it had been there moments earlier. It bizarrely reappeared after selecting 'Use: Default Settings' in the Export dialog then going back into Options! It vanishes each time I choose a different compressor then try to go back to Cinepak. Luckily using the trick above seems to make it reappear. Hope this might work for you!

Reply

Answer 6

mosso Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 7, 2010 12:06 PM in response to David Crowe

Thanks David,

I did a bit of playing around and I did find Cinepak in my avi export options. However as soon as I select a different codec I can't then re-access Cinepak. And I use mov files not avi. Thankfully things are working ok with the ProRes codec thus far so I'll stick to that for the time being. If any of the Apple folks are listening in on this - I'd dearly love to be able to select the codec I want in future, so please re-instate the ability to use the legacy codecs.

Thanks again,

Martin

Reply