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Quicktime wont open or play H.264 .MOV files suddenly that will open in other software

I shot some footage on a Panasonic S1 in H.264 .MOV codec and format. I can play the video on the camera, and I can open and play the files with Pomfort Silverstack software on my MacBook Pro. But I can't open the files with Quictime 10.5 or even with Davinci Resolve 16. I have recorded other .MOV files with this camera and opened them successfully in the past.

Any ideas what may be causing this?

My system is running OS Mojave 10.14.6

Posted on May 17, 2021 5:34 PM

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Posted on May 18, 2021 12:43 AM

What is the video codec and other info? 4:2:2?


https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonic-lumix-dc-s1h-review/5


Yes, this is messy and all is not related to the original question...


Is it the "old" H.264 (AVC Advanced Video Coding) or new H.265 (High Efficiency Video Coding HEVC) that needs macOS 10.13 High Sierra or later?


QuickTime Player refuses to play some H.265/HEVC flavors. Currently macOS 11 Big Sur is more forgiving but it still has the following issues with "Codec ID" and "Chroma subsampling" options.


You can check all those pesky details with apps like Invisor (my favorite because it neatly highlights differences) or MediaInfo.


H.265 Codec ID hvc1 plays OK.


H.265 Codec ID hev1 has an error message "This file contains media which isn't compatible with QuickTime Player" and plays audio only. There is a lossless fix if you install ffmpeg and add '-tag:v hvc1' without re-encoding in the Terminal:


ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vcodec copy -acodec copy -tag:v hvc1 output.mp4


Chroma subsampling 4:2:0 (Bit depth 8 bits) plays OK.


Chroma subsampling 4:2:2 (Bit depth 10 bits) has an error message "This file contains media which isn't compatible with QuickTime Player". Opens anyway in Big Sur but fails in Mojave.


To muddy waters even more:


Google, Youtube, Facebook might use VP8 or VP9 video and OPUS audio codecs that might have to be converted to more common H.264/265 and AAC/PCM codecs.


Google might use webm wrapper and open source community Matroska mkv wrapper that might have to be converted to a more common mp4 (or its very close cousin m4v or mov) wrapper (usually losslessly with ffmpeg although subtitles might be unsupported in other wrappers).


VLC and IINA should have no issues with playing any decent new or old codec. Handbrake or VLC can be used to convert old codecs to new H.264 or H.265 wrapped as common mp4 (or its very close cousin m4v or mov).

3 replies
Question marked as Best reply

May 18, 2021 12:43 AM in response to JamieMacQ

What is the video codec and other info? 4:2:2?


https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonic-lumix-dc-s1h-review/5


Yes, this is messy and all is not related to the original question...


Is it the "old" H.264 (AVC Advanced Video Coding) or new H.265 (High Efficiency Video Coding HEVC) that needs macOS 10.13 High Sierra or later?


QuickTime Player refuses to play some H.265/HEVC flavors. Currently macOS 11 Big Sur is more forgiving but it still has the following issues with "Codec ID" and "Chroma subsampling" options.


You can check all those pesky details with apps like Invisor (my favorite because it neatly highlights differences) or MediaInfo.


H.265 Codec ID hvc1 plays OK.


H.265 Codec ID hev1 has an error message "This file contains media which isn't compatible with QuickTime Player" and plays audio only. There is a lossless fix if you install ffmpeg and add '-tag:v hvc1' without re-encoding in the Terminal:


ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vcodec copy -acodec copy -tag:v hvc1 output.mp4


Chroma subsampling 4:2:0 (Bit depth 8 bits) plays OK.


Chroma subsampling 4:2:2 (Bit depth 10 bits) has an error message "This file contains media which isn't compatible with QuickTime Player". Opens anyway in Big Sur but fails in Mojave.


To muddy waters even more:


Google, Youtube, Facebook might use VP8 or VP9 video and OPUS audio codecs that might have to be converted to more common H.264/265 and AAC/PCM codecs.


Google might use webm wrapper and open source community Matroska mkv wrapper that might have to be converted to a more common mp4 (or its very close cousin m4v or mov) wrapper (usually losslessly with ffmpeg although subtitles might be unsupported in other wrappers).


VLC and IINA should have no issues with playing any decent new or old codec. Handbrake or VLC can be used to convert old codecs to new H.264 or H.265 wrapped as common mp4 (or its very close cousin m4v or mov).

May 18, 2021 9:54 AM in response to Matti Haveri

Yes, you are totally right. And thank you for all the valuable info you posted!

I figured out last night the reason the files won’t open in Quicktime and in Resolve is because they are 10-bit 422 H.264.

I would have to pay for the Studio version of Resolve to get them to work in the software.

and I guess because I updated to Mojave a little while ago I lost support with Quicktime.

Do you know if the latest Mac OS has the same issues as well?

Indeed I have no issues opening and playing the files with VLC.

The big issue for me is wanting to edit the files I shoot with my Lumix S1, so I will have to record in either 8-bit, or MP4 instead next time, until I decide to purchase Resolve Studio.


Cheers!

Quicktime wont open or play H.264 .MOV files suddenly that will open in other software

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