QT unable to play video of 1080i mpeg2 files

Question

QT unable to play video of 1080i mpeg2 files

When I try to play a video file (any I've tried) identified as

224 mpeg2 1920x1080 29.97fps, 38.81Mbps, upper fld first

with either QT10.0 or QT7.6.6 (with recently downloaded QT MPEG-2 playback component), I get a large pane with just black. When I push play, the counter progresses as though it is playing but the video pane stays black.

QT10 indicates the video is MPEG2 Muxed, 30FPS, 17.39Mb/s, 1676x944

QT7 says MPEG2 Muxed, 30FPS, 17.39Mb/s, 1920x1080

The video does play in VLC 2.0.5 but not in MPEG Streamclip (which uses the QT MPEG-2 playback component), which suggests an issue with the MPEG-2 playback component.

I am able to play a video file identified as

224 MPEG-2, 1280 × 720, 16:9, 59.94 fps, 38.81 Mbps, progressive

with QT10, QT7.6.6, and MPEG Streamclip

One source of video I have is in this 1080i format, and I'd like to be able to work with it.

(Audio is a different issue, which I'm not touching here.)

I suspect this is a limitation of the QT MPEG-2 pllayback component (but this limitation is NOT specified at http://store.apple.com/us/product/D2187Z/A/ )

Is there any hope of this working in 10.6? If so, how? Does it work in 10.7 or 10.8 ??

HW/SW: MacBook Pro(2.66Ghz i7, 8G) OS X 10.6.8/QT10.0/QT7.6.6/QTmpg2 playback component.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jan 6, 2013 2:08 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

softwater

Level 5

5,556 points

Jan 6, 2013 2:42 AM in response to William Tyson

Sounds like you've already found the solution: use VLC.

However, if for some reason you're determined to stick with QT, try running the file through Handbrake, and seeing if it'll play after that.

Reply

Answer 2

LousyFool

Level 4

2,662 points

Jan 6, 2013 2:43 AM in response to William Tyson

Sorry for your trouble. There's nothing I can think of other than suggesting you also post here in the forum dedicated to QuickTime - if anywhere, I suspect you'll find help sooner and better there.

Reply

Answer 3

Jan 6, 2013 3:29 AM in response to William Tyson

You can download and install this Free player to solve that:

http://vlc-media-player.en.softonic.com/mac

Reply

Answer 4

Jan 6, 2013 3:24 PM in response to William Tyson

It turns out I found I have some other 1080i MPEG-2 video that does play properly in QT. So it must be something different in the encoding of this particular source of 1080i.

Softwater, thanks for the link to Handbrake. VLC isn't sufficient because I want to do more than just view it. ffmpeg is a little low-level for my current expertise in this area.

LousyFool, thanks for the pointer to the QT forum. I should have been able to find that on my own, but I hadn't.

As for the person (or maybe bot) who provided a link to a republisher of other people's software, maybe there's a reason for them, but since the person didn't even see that I said I used VLC, I suspect that person is just trying to pad his pocket.

Reply