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Since upgrading to Mavericks, many movie or video types no longer are available through Quick Look - and must be converted to play through Quicktime. The convertion can take a awfully long time, depending on the movie size.
Why is that - because they worked fine with Mountain Lion.
The most noticeable examples are .MP4's
Stan,
You are right.
When Mavericks first came out - and I installed it - I was furious. A huge portion of my videos no longer were viewable using quickview. If I double clicked them - they have to go through a lengthy convertion process just to open in Quicktime.
These video were of the garden variety. For example, ones from my GoPro camera. All were MP4s. I have been told this was a security update in the operating system - to stop certain types of malware.
The SOLUTION for me was this: I downloaded a small free application called subler. I now open this program, drop the offending video into the subler app - and it shows how many tracks are part of the video. Anything other than video and audio track has been added - and that is what is preventing quicklook from opening it.
You simply delete the extra track - which is usually entitled "Untitled" -- and Subler strips it without effecting the video at all. These extra tracks are some type of hidden code - that was placed there by the website the video came from.
The whole process takes seconds. The video is not reencoded - rather the bad track (sometimes called other things) is removed.
I edit a lot of video. Perhaps a third of the video I use has to go through this quick process. It takes just a few extra seconds to my normal workflow. I am glad the strip the video of this extra track.
I hope this helps. Google Subler for Mac and you'll find the app. It takes a few minutes to get the hang of it - but it solved my issue.
Sean
Thanks, Sean.
Now, what about avi files? I have a lot of those from a surveillance camera. I used to copy them to my Mac and go through them with Quicklook. Made it easy to delete what I didn't need. Now I have to open them in QT pro 7. Latest version of QT won't always open and convert them which is annoying, too.
Stan,
I am not sure about AVI files. I haven't had that issue myself. I would see if Subler works with those files. I also use a video conversion program quite a bit - and you might consider converting avi files to another format.
Sean
Sean O'Bryan,
If you are going to use Subler to strip 'hint tracks' from video you should be aware of what they actually do…
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/QuickTime/QTFF/QTFFChap2/q tff2.html
Otherwise you may wonder why the video no longer streams to another device.
You may also be removing subtitle, bookmarks or chapter tracks if you just hack out non-audio & video tracks.
'SublerCLI' will allow you to script & 'automate' this hack if you have many files to convert.
This is not a fix, but a 'workaround', the underlying video frameworks changed if you want it to work like 10.8, use 10.8.
See other posts if you want to understand what is happening here. Apple is ceasing to support older codecs within the OS.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5471254?answerId=23678997022#23678997022
I think this illustrates Apple's plans…
Quote - Sam Bushell: "So now is a good time to gather up your legacy media and bring it across the bridge."
e.g. Quit using AVI & convert it all to H264 mpegs (or stick with VLC, mplayer or other apps that will run 32 bit legacy codecs).
The MP4 files I have that do not work in QuickTime X or QuickLook were generated by my Samsung smartphone (video recordings). I opened one of these files in Subler, and there are no hinted tracks -- there is only an H.264 Video track and an AAC audio track. So WHY doesn't QuickTime play it?
... and no world from Apple on our Support Ticket.. Just grasshopper sounds... 😕
I have a fix to turn off the JS when viewing locally but its not the point.. There are othe viewing issue when I go to other web sites too.. I think there are bugs in either Maverticks or Safari... On the whole I really like it but things like when it goes to the Dash Board and opens multiple views is reall anoying.. The animated feature of when Maveritcks opens is really nice.. I also like the full screen, in the way it slide accross when opening other media to full screen.. I gues in time issue will be resolved.. but it would be nice to hear from Apple.
Destiny...
I'd like to ask how anyone at Apple thought that making us take time to convert legacy video would be an improved workflow?
I am still using Adobe Media Encoder to make .MP4 (emailable approval copies) of my edited HD materials to email to clients for approval. Any attempt to attach one of these files to a new email message locks up the Apple MAIL application. My workaround is to use a webmail page to send these files.
Similar problem here after upgrading (!?!?) from SL to Mavericks.
Since Mavericks the MP4 files from my Samsung SD Camcorder had the following probles....
Quick View played video but no audio.
Quicktime displayed th following message...
"The document “HDV_0002.MP4” could not be opened. This media may be damaged."
VLC however still plays them with no problem.
I have found a work around but it makes little sense. It seems to prove that it is not a codec problem but the way Mavericks and or the latest Quicktime is reading the files.
On a hunch I used Miro Video Converter (free) to convert the problematic MP4s to the same format and 'hey presto' they work both in Quick view and quicktime!!!
Same container, same video and audio codecs. Nothing i can see thats different in the finder get info window or the 'media information window ' in VLC.
Go Figure!
Not a perfect solutioin as the process still takes some time but Miro will batch convert.
Hope this helps some of you.
Go Figure is true, nothing makes sence... Mavericks is good but its opened up a heaps of oher issues... Not just with MP4 but even QT movies.. Hardware like my printer/scanner won't even work now, not even with updated drivers... Its good to have Safari 7 but at what cost.. My husband John was chatting on LinkedIn where a guy from Adobe Software Seniour Tech suggests that Apple are making sure thier side works and basically the **** with what others are doing.. But hey.. They were not so smart.. since QT also has issues and that is an Apple app.. So.. Go Figure...!!
Destiny..
Thanks for the suggestion. This works with Handbrake, too (I just tried it). The video is not re-encoded, so the conversion is very quick. But still, why should we have to do it?
Foir the Quicklook issues with MP4 files - which I had to - the following commands in "Terminal" will reset Quicklook and clear the caches. Quicklook should work again - at least for me this solved all crashes, which happened with any movie files:
qlmanage -r
qlmanage -r cache
Will this terminal reset work for .avi files, too? Or just mp4 files.
Deleting caches will not change how Quicklook & Quicktime X works, try reading the manual if ever you need info for a Terminal command e.g. - 'man command-you-are-interested-in'
man qlmanage
and the 'short help'
qmanage -h
I'd love to hear someone say it makes everything back to normal, but I can't see how the Quicklook cache can fix the real problem - AVFoundation doesn't support all older codecs.
@backstageboy,
Edit out 10 seconds of sample footage 'before & after' your fix & upload them to Dropbox (or similar) and share the links here, check the before still fails in the same way for you, since editing can change the codec/ structure.
It may be worth having another pair of eyes look at the codecs & container formats since it seems to me like that is your issue.
Even comparing in VLC or mediainfo may show you some of the differences.
http://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo/Download/Mac_OS (get the free & ugly non-app store version)
bcastello, where do I place all the files when I extract them? Thanks.
Why No Quick Look with MP4 in Mavericks?
