iOS 4 can't play back .m4v videos online

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Level 1

67 points

iOS 4 can't play back .m4v videos online

I have a website where I post dual videos. One Flash for Flash enabled platorms and an .m4v video for iPhones, iPods and iPad devices (and Android too).

This worked fine until I updated my iPhone 3G to iOS4. Now .m4v files won't play, I get a pop-up box in Mobile Safari saying, "Download Failed Safari cannot download this file"

I have confirmed this on my iPhone 3G and another person's 3GS, both upgraded to iOS4.

The mobile version of the movies continue to play on both an iPhone 2G and iPad, both running OS 3.x

Here's the page with the video clips:
http://www.hawaii247.com/2010/06/28/2010-mate-international-rov-competition/

iPhone 3G, iOS 4, 16MB

Posted on Jun 28, 2010 3:13 PM

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Answer 1

Baron Sekiya Author

Level 1

67 points

Jun 29, 2010 1:06 AM in response to Baron Sekiya

Okay, I got it to sort-of work. I had to rename the filename extension to .mp4 instead of the default .m4v that gets exported from QuickTime Pro. And I had to change the filename extension AFTER it was FTP'd as Finder won't let me change the extension on the desktop.

Apple obviously drops the ball once again with QuickTime.

QuickTime is one of the cornerstones of Apple yet it's treated so poorly it's incredible. All of my QuickTime movies that were set-up previously with QuickTime Reference Movies to automatically push out the correct video formats for desktop or iPhone are broken because of a change Apple made. So I switched to Flash videos instead because of this blunder.

QuickTime VR is pretty much dead.

QuickTime X is crap with no Pro version.

And now iOS kills .m4v files. Good going Apple, way to hurt your base of content developers. Funny thing is...Flash videos years old still play while Apple keeps breaking QuickTime.

This does not inspire confidence if you really want to get rid of Flash.

Here are the files:
http://www.hawaii247.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/20100626_mate.m4v
and
http://www.hawaii247.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/20100626_mate.mp4

Message was edited by: Baron Sekiya

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Answer 2

Scottnj

Level 1

19 points

Jun 29, 2010 6:18 AM in response to Baron Sekiya

That simple change of the extension worked like a charm. Thank you for posting the fix. Now all my videos will work again.

Thanks

Scott

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Answer 3

Baron Sekiya Author

Level 1

67 points

Jun 29, 2010 1:11 PM in response to Baron Sekiya

Not being able to rename extensions was probably due to permissions needing to be repaired, so at least that's working now. But this .m4v bug needs to be fixed. And better yet, just have QuickTime export the files as .mp4 as default for iPhones and the rest of the world.

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