Quicktime won't playback dv quicktime movie authored in imovie hd

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Quicktime won't playback dv quicktime movie authored in imovie hd

After authoring a movie in imovie hd and saving it as a dv quicktime file and burning it to a dvd on my G4 powerbook, the dvd freezes on the first couple of frames and just stutters forward. However, when I play the same dvd on my desktop imac g5 with identical software, the dvd plays back just fine. Any suggestions?

G4 Powerbook, Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Posted on Apr 20, 2006 1:51 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 20, 2006 2:02 PM in response to CWB

The data rate of DV formats is very high (4 to 25MB's per sec). If you're playing it back from the DVD the drive can't send the data out fast enough.
Try copying it from the DVD to the HD.

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Answer 2

CWB Author

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Apr 20, 2006 2:11 PM in response to QuickTimeKirk

But why would it play back on the dvd of my desktop, but not my laptop?

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Answer 3

Apr 20, 2006 2:18 PM in response to CWB

Remember the days when CD drives were measured as things like 4X, 16X, 56X?
The same is true of DVD drives. Obviously your G5 has a faster DVD speed than the laptop.

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Answer 4

CWB Author

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Apr 20, 2006 6:10 PM in response to QuickTimeKirk

That's the mystery. The G4 Powerbook has the identical DVD drive as the imac G5. Perhaps Quicktime on my laptop has a bug that my desktop with the identical DVD drive and identical Quicktime software doesn't have?

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Answer 5

Apr 20, 2006 6:20 PM in response to CWB

OK. Then you've ruled out the drive. It must be the data rate of the file itself.
Did you create an HD file? Most G4's can't play anything more than 480p.

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Answer 6

CWB Author

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Apr 20, 2006 8:34 PM in response to QuickTimeKirk

The file is a Quicktime DV file. Format: DV/DVCPRO-NTSC, 720 x 480, millions, DV, Stereo, 48,000kHZ playing 30fps. Data rate 57.69 mbits/sec. Perhaps I should try reinstalling Quicktime on my laptop?

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Answer 7

Jon Walker

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Apr 20, 2006 8:55 PM in response to CWB

Current format used on your DVD is fine for archival storage, but why not give your laptop a break (you didn't mention if desktop and laptop CPU ran at same or different speeds) and try the suggestion made above -- try converting the file to another format like MPEG-4/AAC using the "Movie to QuickTime Movie" at the default 6,400 video data rate at 640x480 pixels with 48K/160kbps CBR stereo audio.

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Answer 8

Apr 20, 2006 8:58 PM in response to CWB

That is about 6.8MB's/sec and I can play these on my iMac 400 G3 machine without dropping frames. I'm not going to burn a file to DVD just to test its playability.
Maybe rollback to an older version of QT first.
http://www.apple.com/support/quicktime/
Move down to 7.0.1 and then back to 7.0.4. The whole thing has me stumped.
Did you try playing the file from a copy off the DVD to the laptop Desktop?

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Answer 9

CWB Author

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Apr 20, 2006 9:38 PM in response to Jon Walker

My imac dektop runs at 1.8 GHz (power pc G5) and my laptop runs at 1.33 GHz (power pc G4). The dvd of the imovie hd was authored in order to make a digibeta master to burn dvds to show the movie to prospective clients. Ultimately, it's basically a master for that purpose. I was just confounded as to why it would play on one computer and not the other. Perhaps it is the difference between the G4 and G5 and th sheer amount of data on that particular dvd. I've authored other dvds with using H.264 and didn't have the same problem...probably because the files were so much smaller. But, the video folks at the post production house tell me DV/DVC PRO is the codec of choice for what I'm trying to achieve...

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Answer 10

CWB Author

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Apr 20, 2006 9:43 PM in response to QuickTimeKirk

That's the other odd thing...a copy of the Quicktime file from the DVD plays just fine on the desktop by itself on both the laptop and the desktop. Maybe I'll try reinstalling 7.0.1 again and then back to 7.0.4 as you suggest...

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Answer 11

Jon Walker

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Apr 21, 2006 4:12 AM in response to CWB

Agree that DV is optimum. However, I consider this more of a "master editing" rather than "master distribution" level. However, now that you mention it, I was wondering what your QT preferences are on your laptop. When I checked mine. I noticed the movie cache was defaulted to only 100 MBs. Couple ths with the "auto cache movie" setting and I wondered if the first 1.75 seconds or so of your movie was totally filling the cache and chocking play. (I assume here that a file already on the laptop HDD would not trigger the "auto cache" preference.) In any case, just a thought for whatever it may be worth. Let us know if turning off caching or re-setting the limit has any effect.

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Answer 12

CWB Author

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Apr 21, 2006 9:18 AM in response to Jon Walker

Tried different settings on the movie cache and this had no effect, whatsoever. Besides, I think these settings only relate to downloaded movies, not movies played back on a dvd. Also tried reinstalling Quicktime 7.0 and bumping back up to 7.0.4 and that didn't do anything, either. It's puzzling. Maybe it's in the dvd player itself? Or something related to the cpu? Or?

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Answer 13

CWB Author

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Apr 22, 2006 8:48 PM in response to CWB

Tried reinstalling Quicktime and it didn't make a difference. maybe the problem isn't with Quicktime at all. I tried burning a dvd with the same Quicktime DV files on my imac, thinking it might be the superdrive in my laptop. the dvd plays back fine on the imac, but stutters and stops on the laptop. I can't believe it's just the difference between the G4 and G5 or the difference between the Matshita DVD-R UJ-816 in the powerbook or the Matshita DVD-R UJ 825 in the imac.

Anyone out there have any other suggestions? Some articles I've been reading lately suggest that it may be the media and that the two dvd drives respond differently to the type of DVDs I've been using (Maxell DVD-R 8x). Maybe I should try TDK or Apple?

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