Not able to add video to iBooks Author

Question

Level 1

15 points

Not able to add video to iBooks Author

A few weeks ago I started tinkering with iBooks Author. I really like it, very easy to work with. I'd also tried to add some movies and that's where it is getting frustrating... I simply cannot add movies. Whatever I try...

Of course I read the help page, browsed Apple support and apparently all I need to do is open a video with Quicktime X, choose export, select iPad and hit the button, but, it simply doesn't work. Whatever I try, I get the message "The media file "test.m4v" wasn't added. One or more video tracks are unsupported."

Here's what I tried so far:

- Youtube video (mp4) -> Quicktime X -> export to iDevice : Not working

- Youtube video (mp4) -> Quicktime 7 -> export to mov -> Quicktime X -> export to iDevice : Not working

- Youtube video (flv) -> Quicktime 7 -> export to mov -> Quicktime X -> export to iDevice : Not working

- Youtube video (flv) -> Handbrake -> export to iPad -> Quicktime X -> export to iDevice : Not working

- iPhone 4S video (mov) -> Quicktime X -> export to iPad : Not working

- iPhone 4S video (mov) -> Quicktime 7 -> export with different settings -> Quicktime X -> export to iPad : Not working

- Part from a DVD rip by handbrake -> Quicktime X -> export to iPad : Not working

- Part from a DVD rip by handbrake -> Quicktime 7 -> export with different settings -> Quicktime X -> export to iPad : Not working

- New video in iMovie -> export to mobile -> Quicktime X -> export to iDevice: Not working

- New video in iMovie -> export to iTunes -> Quicktime X -> export to iDevice: Not working

- New video from within Quicktime X -> export to iDevice: Not working

What the **** am I doing wrong here? Am I missing something? Is it simple too easy for me to see?

In general, Quicktime X poops out the following:

These are settings from a newly created video with my iSight camera. Nothing fancy...

Anyone have an idea on how to proceed?

/edit: to add: I normally have Perian running, but for the sake of testing disabled it. The non-youtube tests are done without it...

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Mar 15, 2012 6:39 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

David Markus Author

Level 1

15 points

Mar 15, 2012 7:40 AM in response to David Markus

Within Parallels, I've freshly installed Mac OS X Lion (10.7.3) with iBooks Author 1.1. And you know what? Over there it works like a charm...

The installation on my iMac was installed over Snow Leopard, with all of its history... I'll see if there are some quicktime addons from the past that are interfering...

Reply

Answer 2

David Markus Author

Level 1

15 points

Mar 15, 2012 8:06 AM in response to David Markus

BINGO!

In /Library/Quicktime I found 15 extra components of which at least 6 were from years ago... Funny how they got there. Apple's migration assistant appears to be thorough...

Well, after moving them, restarting QTX, iBooks Author liked my exports...

/edit: I start to like talking to myself 😉

Reply

Answer 3

Mar 25, 2012 12:58 AM in response to David Markus

David,I am having a similar problem, which were the extra codecs. thanks.

Reply

Answer 4

Xavierpl

Level 1

0 points

Mar 27, 2012 10:23 AM in response to David Markus

6 hours knocking my head against my wall, and at least I found your tip !!!!

Thank you so much David !

Reply

Answer 5

David Markus Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 9, 2012 4:59 AM in response to lucian.horrobin

@Lucian: sorry for the long wait... I had 15 non-original codecs, a bunch from Canon, DivX, Flip4Mac and some old FCP codecs. The oldest one was from 2006, from back in the days when I was still working on my iMac G5.

@ Xavierpl: Glad I could help 😉

Reply

Answer 6

Dan-o

Level 2

403 points

Apr 9, 2012 3:12 PM in response to lucian.horrobin

Yes I'm curious to know which components you removed also. How did you know what the right cut-off date was? Shouldn't Apple's system updates replace anything that's old which handles H.264 stuff anyway?

This whole "render a video then convert it in QT" is generally an inefficient process. Not sure why Apple doesn't accept straight .mov files encoded in H.264 but for now anything to help avoid roadblocks is appreciated.

Reply

Answer 7

David Markus Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 9, 2012 4:47 PM in response to Dan-o

To simply put it, I removed them all except the ones from Apple. But if you insist on a list, here you go:

SoundboothScoreCodec.component

Flip4Mac WMV Import.component

Flip4Mac WMV Advanced.component

Flip4Mac WMV Export.component

DivX Decoder.component

DivX Encoder.component

CanonText.component

CanonH264Enc.component

CanonH264Dec.component

DesktopVideoOut.component

CanonMJPEGAVI.component

FCP Uncompressed 422.component

LiveType.component

Save as AVI.component

CanonMJPEGAVIDec.component

Reply

Answer 8

Apr 28, 2012 3:27 PM in response to David Markus

I have a similar problem and followed this advice of this thread. I only have Apple and QT components in my library folder and all from 2011. Still no success with importing m.4v files into IBA.

Any ideas anyone?

Reply

Answer 9

Apr 28, 2012 3:50 PM in response to Christoph.stork

I found 2 libraries, root folder and within system, and emptied both quicktime folders. now it works. Thanks!

Reply

Answer 10

Apr 28, 2012 3:54 PM in response to Christoph.stork

Cool! Can you recall the names of the libraries? That might be useful here for posterity.

Michi.

Reply

Answer 11

Apr 29, 2012 12:18 AM in response to MichiHenning

I also removed everything non apple or quicktime and moved them into a back up folder. This way I can put them back, one by one as I need them.

The removed component included perian, flip4mac, canon, livetype, FCP uncompressed, IMXcodec, EyeTV, DVCHDpro, x264, mp4v, divx, Xvid, msmpeg.

Reply

Answer 12

Apr 29, 2012 8:54 AM in response to David Markus

Click wights, click video and then drag your video to the placholder.

Message was edited by: matthewfrommason

Reply

Answer 13

David Markus Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 29, 2012 11:20 AM in response to matthewfrommason

Hi Matthew,

Thanks for your splendid answer, but if you had bothered to read the topic, you might have noticed I already solved my own problem. Also, I think most of the people participating in this topic have a perfect idea about how to add a video to iBooks Author... Next time, try to be a bit more constructive and at least read a bit...

Cheers,

David

Reply

Answer 14

Sep 11, 2012 9:45 AM in response to David Markus

David,

I know you've already solved your problem, but just in case you need to add in some of those components back for some reason....

I had a similar issue, but once I used Apple's "Compressor" app it solved all my problems. It did require paying for "Compressor" but it was worth it, as I needed to keep some of the other components for other work.

And by using "Compressor" I was sure all my files were as tiny as possible. "Compressed" to the maximum so to speak.

Our book had tons of video: it's an American Sign Language (video on every page) and English (audio and text on every page). So making sure our files were as small as possible was important.

Thanks for sharing your solution.

If anyone is curious, here is our American Sign Language & English book, using Compressor, here it is:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/strollin-little-baby-owen/id550867985?ls=1

Reply