QuickTime MP4 Playlist

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QuickTime MP4 Playlist

I am trying to create a playlist for some mp4 movie clips to be shown on my web using an m4u extension for my playlist file but QuickTime does not play any of the movies. It just displays the first url in the list. Are m4u files not supported (I already use m3u for my audio clips)? If not then how can I create a playlist?

Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Posted on Jan 4, 2006 10:09 AM

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Answer 1

Kyn Drake

Level 7

21,597 points

Jan 4, 2006 12:23 PM in response to Chevron7

Welcome to the discussions, Chevron7.

If you have QuickTime Pro, you could manually copy all of the movies into one file then save that file as a reference movie (make sure they're all in the same directory). Post that reference .mov and the other files on the web and have users access the reference movie. It should play all the movies in sequence with a small delay in between.

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Answer 2

Chevron7 Author

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Jan 4, 2006 12:36 PM in response to Kyn Drake

I just have the standard QuickTime player. I want to use the QuickTime browser plugin to play the movie clips on the web.

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Answer 3

Kyn Drake

Level 7

21,597 points

Jan 4, 2006 1:13 PM in response to Chevron7

Well, you can use SMIL. SMIL allows you to create a text file that QuickTime will read like a movie.

Look at the examples here to get started.

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Answer 4

Chevron7 Author

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Jan 5, 2006 5:11 AM in response to Kyn Drake

Does this mean that m4u playlists are not supported by QuickTime? SMIL is a little more involved then I really wanted to get. In addition, it won't stream the movies like the m3u playlist does for audio.

Mac OS X (10.4.3)

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Answer 5

Kyn Drake

Level 7

21,597 points

Jan 5, 2006 10:55 AM in response to Chevron7

I did a search and found sites that say it does support m4u, and sites that say it doesn't. Since I was unable to find anything definitive, I'd say that it doesn't.

When you say stream, is that the same as playing while it downloads? If so this SHOULD do that as well, but, again, not exactly sure as I haven't done a lot with playlist creation.

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Answer 6

Chevron7 Author

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Jan 6, 2006 5:41 AM in response to Kyn Drake

I did similar searches and thats what prompted my question. Although I know very little about SMIL it seems that is the only possible solution. I guess I'll give it a try ... it may take awhile but I'll let you know if I come up with a solution. Thanks for all you help; I appreciate it.

By the way, your interpretation of "streaming" is what I was referring to.

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Answer 7

Kyn Drake

Level 7

21,597 points

Jan 6, 2006 9:09 AM in response to Chevron7

I even saw instances where they referred to m4u as a file containing video and not a playlist so I'm wondering if that extension is even regulated.

If that's what you're referring to, then, yes, they should progressively play as they download in the QuickTime Player. Here's a site I did awhile back that will help you to create the first movie of your SMIL.
http://homepage.mac.com/makentosh/qt4u/
If you need any help with the progression, just post back!

Also, not sure if this will work with .mp4 files, but wanted to tell you anyway.
Try Metadata Hootenanny
http://www.applesolutions.com/bantha/MH.html
(download link at the bottom of the page)
It can create playlists and if it works, may be just what you're looking for.

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Answer 8

Chevron7 Author

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Jan 14, 2006 6:27 PM in response to Kyn Drake

Thanks for your help with SMIL; it works great. But, only with IE. Both Netscape and Firefox say a plugin is needed. The QuickTime plugin is installed for both browsers. Here's the code:

<OBJECT CLASSID="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B" WIDTH="320"HEIGHT="180"
CODEBASE="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">
<PARAM name="SRC" VALUE="../video/VCLP0122.smil">
<PARAM name="AUTOPLAY" VALUE="true">
<PARAM name="CONTROLLER" VALUE="false">
<EMBED SRC="../video/VCLP0122.smil" WIDTH="320" HEIGHT="180" AUTOPLAY="true" CONTROLLER="false" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/">
</EMBED></OBJECT>

If I specify an MP4 directely instead of SMIL it works but then I have no playlist.

Mac OS X (10.4.3)

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Answer 9

Kyn Drake

Level 7

21,597 points

Jan 15, 2006 12:05 AM in response to Chevron7

What does it do in Safari? It could be a MIME problems either from the server side or in the browser settings.

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Answer 10

Chevron7 Author

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Jan 15, 2006 9:57 AM in response to Kyn Drake

If I use the code as is Safari does not play the video, the window remains blank where the video should play. However, if I:
- drop the (MIME) TYPE attribute
- set the SRC attribute to the path to the media resource
- drop the qtsrc attribute
as follows:

<OBJECT CLASSID="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B" WIDTH="320"HEIGHT="180"
CODEBASE="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">
<PARAM name="SRC" VALUE="../video/VCLP0122.smil">
<PARAM name="AUTOPLAY" VALUE="true">
<PARAM name="CONTROLLER" VALUE="false">
<EMBED SRC="../video/VCLP0122.smil" WIDTH="320" HEIGHT="180" AUTOPLAY="true" CONTROLLER="false" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/">
</EMBED></OBJECT>

the video plays using Safari but still not for Netscape or Firefox. I receive the message "click to download plugin". Its as if the browsers don't know what to do with the playlist (smil).

Mac OS X (10.4.3)

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Answer 11

Chevron7 Author

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Jan 15, 2006 12:40 PM in response to Kyn Drake

HURRAY -- I now have it working on all browsers - IE, Netscape, Firefox, Safari. I set the SRC attribute to the path to a fake QuickTime movie (mov) file and added back the QTSRC attribute, setting it to the path to the media resource as follows:

<OBJECT
CLASSID="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B"
CODEBASE="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab"
WIDTH="640" HEIGHT="495" >

<PARAM NAME="src" VALUE="../../../../video/VCLP0122.SMIL" >
<PARAM NAME="autoplay" VALUE="true" >
<PARAM NAME="loop" VALUE="false" >

<EMBED SRC="fake.mov"
PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download"
QTSRC="../../../../video/VCLP0122.SMIL" WIDTH="640" HEIGHT="495"
AUTOPLAY="true" >
</EMBED></OBJECT>

Thanks for all your help.

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Answer 12

Jan 15, 2006 1:42 PM in response to Chevron7

I'm very late jumping in on this thread.
The .smil extension can also be used by other browser plugins and works best when it is saved as .mov.
You can also use the QTNEXT tags to achieve the same goals. One movie loads right after the next. Look at this page for more info:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61011

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