Convert m4v files to mov, etc

Purchased files can't be exported or converted.

Hi folks...you sir, QuickTimeKirk seem just the one to ask this question to.....I've spent the last week getting all my archive (private) music artist videos onto my website I'm currently designing in Dreamweaver 4....

All DW states, and hundreds of online youtube resources etc etc state, is that you add QuickTime movies via the plug-in, and 90% of them state the file suffix must be .mov, NOT .mp4 or .m4v.......

So this question, which must be one of the most common non-answered questions about web authoring that I've seen online, is:

How can people successfully convert m4v and mp4 files to mov files for web delivery of video (and NOT in flash format as I want iPads, iPhones etc to play them)? If you use QuickTime 7 (Pro), you get large converted .mov files some of which aren't even recognized by Firefox for Mac (let alone other platforms) tho most but not all are recognized in Safari for Mac....

All I want is a little portfolio website where you click an embedded .mov file, and lo and behold, it plays in all browsers (which have the QT plug-in of course). Any thoughts please? Cheers. Chris

All Web browsers will recognize the more modern .m4v and .mp4 file extension as a supported QuickTime format. No need to convert the files to .mov.

The key is proper html page code and the server having added these extensions to their .htaccess file.

Thanks for that but....

"The key is proper html page code and the server having added these extensions to their .htaccess file"

I guess I don't know how to go about these bits, especially using dreamweaver (no documentation anywhere even on adobe's support sites)

Guess I've gotta search for the right code have I? And will everybody be able to see these movies with the right code? Wish there was some simple documentation about it...anywhere...

C

http://www.qtbridge.com/pageot/pageot.html

Free software that writes perfect page code. Just copy/paste into your Dreamweaver html file.

Thanks very much QTK, am looking at it now...though it does use .mov files and points to this excellent (for once) apple doc

http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/QuickTime/Conceptual/QTScri pting_HTML/QTScripting_HTML.pdf

where they state that converting to .mov files should be done unless html5 tags are used....

is this .htaccess file relevant to this?

Cheers

chris m

The .htaccess file is stored on your server and controls some of the playback options. If you host your pages on a server outside your control a simple email or phone call can get them to update it for the more modern .m4v or .mp4 file extensions.

HTML 5 is still "new" and not all modern browsers support it. Once you review the PAGEOT app you'll find references to "external" links to the special javascript file. You can find more info at this link (written for Internet Explorer):

http://developer.apple.com/internet/ieembedprep.html

Thanks very much for all this...the PAGEot app gives nice simple-ish code and I've contacted my ISP regarding the .htaccess file...

The code with the class and activex bits seems to allow mp4 and m4v files to be played back on all browsers on my mac at least! To stream this presumably the .htaccess bit will allow access by PC/Mac users alike...

Why is none of this code mentioned in manuals let alone adobe's support site (they do want Flash world domination I suppose) but I wanna stay clear of both Flash and HTML5 until the latter's widely adopted...

Cheers again

HI QTK, wanted to just thank your mostly successful advice about my site problems. I have my flash free website www.rhythmshop.com up and running and I wanted to send you this hopefully final request...

OK, my music files (say on http://www.rhythmshop.com/music_pop_plus.html) being played by the yahoo media player, are 95% .m4a files. These work on all Macs, iPads, iPhones etc on all browsers I've tested, but on SOME PCs, on IE7 and above and Firefox 3 and above, they don't work, whereas the 5% .mp3 files do work on these PCs. Without resorting to converting all my .m4a's to mp3's, or using soundcloud or an HTML5/Flash dual option player, any thoughts?

Secondly, all my videos (eg http://www.rhythmshop.com/eyeofthestorm.html) are .mp4s and work on all the Apples mentioned above and even on Firefox 3 and above on the PC, but none work at all on the PC on IE 8 or below as far as I can make out. Again, any quick thoughts?

I must point out that so far I haven't even touched or submitted an .htaccess file ! Hope you don't mind me bothering you again....cheers chris m, London, UK

PS! Wow I've just seen you do LOADS of replies i hese discussions....hope you don't mind this final final point, I don't want ANY of my videos or music files "downloadable" either by "Save as quicktime file" or anything else (maybe a certain hijacking will always have to be allowed!)..any obvious thoughts about that too???

i'll be off trying to google the answer myself now!

Chris

Your audio files are all "direct" links and no instructions are given to any browser plug-in because there is no code to call one.

Because many PC's haven't assigned MIME associations for the .m4a file extension the viewers machine would probably try and download the file. You need to use code that calls a browser plug-in and modify the .htaccess file to map it to a browser plug-in.

The video works for me. I don't have a Windows machine to test the page. The page code uses the older object/embed tags and that could be the reason. Modern code could help.