M2v files will not playback

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Level 1

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M2v files will not playback

I am running quicktime 10.2 on OSX 10.8.2

I have Compressor 3.5 installed as well as DVD Studio Pro 4.

I have recently upgraded to this new machine (Mac PRO 2X 3.06 6 core xenon)

I cannot view M2v files in quicktime player. I used to be able to on my old maching running qicktime 10.0 as well as having quicktime 7 installed.

I see the quicktimempeg2.component installed in my system/library..... and I am confused why then no longer play on this machine.

the files I create Here I can see on the old machine as well as this machine in DVD studio pro.

I should not have to go grab a 3rd party app to view these files.

thank you

-D

Posted on Feb 6, 2013 2:57 PM

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Answer 1

Jon Walker

Level 6

19,467 points

Feb 6, 2013 6:49 PM in response to deger

I cannot view M2v files in quicktime player.

If you are referring to properly encoded MPEG2 video content in an M2V file container, then both the QT X v10.2 Player and the QT 7 "classic" Player (with the QT MPEG-2 Playback Component installed) should be able to the M2V video file data.

I see the quicktimempeg2.component installed in my system/library.....

This component only supports MPEG-2 content in "classic" QT apps like QT 7 or MPEG Streamclip. The QT X v10.2 player supports MPEG-2 content using a different component installed as part of the OS v10.8 Mountain Lion OS installation. I normally use the QT 7 Player for viewing M2V files paired with AIFF elementary streams (or MPEG Streamclip for M2V video paiered with AC3 elementary audio streams) because the QT X player does not automatically open elementary audio streams paired with M2V files. (I.e., if you have paired M2V/AC3 or paired M2V/AIFF elementary streams, then they must be manually opend in separate players for QT X playback.)

the files I create Here I can see on the old machine as well as this machine in DVD studio pro.

I should not have to go grab a 3rd party app to view these files.

Since you have not explained what you mean by "create," it is difficult to tell if you are also having a "content-container" problem here. For instance, if you merge the M2V and AIFF or M2V and AC3 data into an MOV file container, then QT X will refuse to open the file. It also doesn't like muxed MPEG-2 content in VOB file containers.

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Answer 2

deger Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 7, 2013 6:53 AM in response to Jon Walker

I will be a little more specific about what is going on because what I am trying to do now and have been doing in the past are a little different then what you are talking about.

I will have a quicktime movie (.mov) file that I have created in After Effects or Final Cut Pro or Avid Media Composer. This Quicktime movie will either have ProRes 4.2.2 or Animation codec applied to it when it is output from my Editing App. This files will not me reference movies but Self Contained meaning I could take that .MOV file, throw it on a drive take it to another system where the original source media used to create the .MOV file is not contained and it will play.. Audio and Video are both contained in this file. sometimes though there is no audio since I am not using any.

I will then take this .MOV file into compressor I have compressor transcode the Video portion of the file into a .m2v file. For the problem I am having lets just throw out the whole audio thing, since I am not using the audio. I am not even telling compressor to add any audio into the m2v file so it is just a video only stream.

Now after some further investigation here is where it is really weird.

so I have a preset that I set up for making these specific .m2v files because there is a piece of hardware that my company uses that plays these m2v files back over our television channels.. these files need to be really small in size.. up until i purchased this new mac with QT 10.2 I had no problems viewing these really small files. By small I mean they are under 30kb. they are usually a 2 frame video file, they are also under 30kb once run through compressor.

Here is the weird thing. When I playback a 30sec file that I create with the same preset it plays fine. When I try to open the files i create that are 2 frames they either come up black with a weird thing on the interface that looks like a 3/4 circle with an arrow pointing to the left and a 30 in the center (which what the devil is that) or it says the file cannot be opened.

So I am at a total loss since I never had this problem on my old mac running 10.6.7 and QT 10.0

Hopefully I have explained this problem clearer.

Thanks

-D

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Answer 3

Jon Walker

Level 6

19,467 points

Feb 7, 2013 7:35 AM in response to deger

Here is the weird thing. When I playback a 30sec file that I create with the same preset it plays fine. When I try to open the files i create that are 2 frames they either come up black with a weird thing on the interface that looks like a 3/4 circle with an arrow pointing to the left and a 30 in the center (which what the devil is that) or it says the file cannot be opened.

So I am at a total loss since I never had this problem on my old mac running 10.6.7 and QT 10.0

Only a guess on my part, but it could be that the newer QT X player is programmed to consider these 2-frame files as incomplete since they contain less than one complete GOP (group of pictures) frame set which would also explain why the longer clips play correctly.

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Answer 4

deger Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 7, 2013 7:50 AM in response to Jon Walker

makes sense since I can view nothing lower then 5 frames.. well as long as the guys who put the thing on the air can make it work I guess I am okay.. Big trouble is getting the files super small but that is another discussion.

Thanks for all of your help

-D

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