QuickTime convert .avi to .mov with OS X Mavericks

Deborah Terreson wrote:

martbr - Apple has ALREADY removed the 32-bit support for QuickTime components. Hence none of the codec packs working unless you donwload and use the QuickTime Player 7.

If QT Player 7 (32 bit) is using QT extensions like Perian (32 bit), then 32-bit support for QuickTime components is still there. And not only for QT Player 7, but other 32 bit applications which use QT.

As far as I have tested, DivX as QT extension is not necessary if Perian is installed. Even worse: if Perian and DivX is installed, then DivX is used at my systems for DivX movies - and it displays its logo in the lower right corner.

VLC is not using QT - I do not understand why it is mentioned in the context of QT (extensions). If Perian and Flip4Mac is installed, then - as far as I know - all 32 bit applications which use QT 32 bit can open all common videos.

Oh good on that DivX extension being included with Perian.

If I may clarify, my codec libraries were created at a time BEFORE Perian, so I always have stuck by the original sources for components and leave them as options.

VLC installs some strange mpeg support. I have an old concert that was encoded in a muxed-audio mpeg format and it would NOT play in QuickTime until I added VLC to my system. I have NO idea what VLC adds that the system uses. It cannot hurt, so I include it in the instructions.

(You could also add Handbrake and the ffmpegX utility and all the libraries it has, but for the majority of users who wish only to play their videos, that is overkill, and I haven't tested any of that in Mavericks yet)

At the very least, others can discover that there are more video playback options than just QuickTime.

Regards,

If I may ask, please could you tell me how to roll my Maverick "upgrade". I am desperate to return to Lion or even Snow Leopard I started with.

Thanks, Deborah, very helpful post.

I know Apple ignores a lot of things when it moves on. Some said that complainers should either accept that or leave Apple products and move to another platform. Really? Is that what Apple is promoting, to lose customers because they feel mistreated?

Someone told in a previous post that Apple is doing that because they want full integration between desktop/laptop devices and mobile ones through iCloud, and that's why it has limited movie formats to those that can be read with AV Foundation, the framework used in mobile devices: even if I have iPhone and iPad, I don't use iCloud at all. Call me paranoic, but I don't want my data on a third party server, that's why I run my personal server. But several other people have Apple destop/laptop computers, but no Apple mobile devices, but Android or Windows Mobile ones, so they cannot use iCloud at all, and they are being forced to ditch popular movie formats on their computers, formats that they CAN play on their mobile devices.

There are always several solutions for a problem, but forcing customers to do a thing they don't want or need is not a good one. Apple wants iCloud integration? Ok, then warn users that certain movie formats wont be readable in Apple mobile devices through iCloud, they will convert them if they really need it.

Saluditos,

Ferrán.

OPEN

Well, lets Apple quit support for the playback of various formats in his QT Player. We have some free option to get the old frames one the screen again..Mplayer, VLC etc.. It makes no diffrence to us in terms of the handling.

Microsoft once also operates the DVD codecs out of the OS.

ASK

What me makes wondering is that the Quickview and QT Palyer instantly tries to convert without any query, if this is our wish.

SMOOTH WORKFLOW

And on the second hand, it makes me sad to see that this simple spacbar button tapping will not play a preview of my viedeos with a codec no longer supported by apple.

I love the spacebar file previews from OSX, this makes the work so fluid

Déjà-écouté

We had this with Microsoft and Adobe Photoshop image preview thumbs a while back, as they stoped rendingering a small image thumb of the image.

Maybe reverting in Time Machine to a date prior to the update?

Fortunatelly for me, I took the precautionary measure of copying my Snow Leopard partition to another disk, and did proceed with the update on the copy, so my primary partition remains basically untouched. Fortunatelly because Mavericks does not work as it should, some apps don't work as they should (i.e, Parallels 8, fully updated, does not start), so I'm still finetunning it, I will not switch until everything is to my complete satisfaction.

Saluditos,

Ferrán.

dgs17, unfortunately Apple doesn't make it easy to roll back the OS - so if you have an external drive, backup all your personal files to it and re-install Snow Leopard. Time Machine restore points are tricky and I'm not sure you CAN install back without doing a clean erase of the volume first.

Not to get too off topic to this QT thread, at the time you decide to do this re-install and you've gotten ALL your personal files tucked away safely, might I ask you to consider a *partitioning* plan to your hard drive so as to give you a widest 'escape' option for Operating System updates.

You can have three volumes on your hard drive if it is large enough, and two are for Operating Systems that you can tag-team updates with, and the third is for all your stuff so if you have to reinstall or erase a volume, all your files are still in their own space.

My own MacBook Pro has FOUR partitions on it, three 60GB volumes with 10.6.8, 10.8.5 and 10.9 on each, and a Storage volume of 300+ GB left for all my pictures, stories, videos, etc.. When I installed 10.9, I erased my oldest 10.5.8 Leopard install which I wasn't using anymore. Just grabbed the Leopard Desktop folder, dumped it in the Storage volume, checked if any stray files I might want were still kicking around and erased and installed 10.9 into that space.

Do a correct setup and jump a little mentally to see how it works you will NEVER have issues again - (barring the actual hard drive physically breaking, that is) multiple partitions, each with their own index - directory for files - is a win-win situation.

If you want, I will holmes out an easy-to-read and follow tutorial on setting up a drive with multiple partitions, and the benefits of doing so.

Will put this into a different forum at that time, just to keep things tidy here.

Regards,

Deb.

I found this section in the Mac Developer Library that discusses the AV framework and technologies for OS X Mavericks:

"The following sections highlight changes to frameworks and technologies in OS X v10.9.

New Frameworks

The following frameworks have been added in OS X v10.9:

AV Kit (AVKit.framework). AV Kit is a modern API for incorporating media playback capabilities into apps. AV Kit provides view-level services for media playback, complete with user controls, chapter navigation, and support for subtitles and closed captioning. Built on the most modern OS X media technology, AV Kit is an ideal starting point for developers looking to transition their QuickTime-based applications to AV Foundation.

For more information, read AV Kit Framework Reference.

Deprecated Frameworks

From time to time, Apple adds deprecation macros to APIs to indicate that those APIs should no longer be used in active development. When a deprecation occurs, it is not an immediate end of life to the specified API. Instead, it is the beginning of a grace period for transitioning off that API and onto newer and more modern replacements. Deprecated APIs typically remain present and usable in the system for some reasonable amount of time past the release in which they were deprecated. However, active development on them ceases, and the APIs receive only minor changes to accommodate security patches or to fix other critical bugs. Deprecated APIs may be removed entirely from a future version of the operating system.

As a developer, it is important that you avoid using deprecated APIs in your code as soon as possible. At a minimum, new code you write should never use deprecated APIs. And if you have existing code that uses deprecated APIs, you should update that code as soon as possible. Fortunately, the compiler generates warnings whenever it spots the use of a deprecated API in your code. You can use those warnings to track down and remove all references to those APIs.

The following frameworks are deprecated in OS X v10.9:

Instant Message framework

QuickTime framework

QTKit framework (except for QTMovieModernizer)

The Instant Message framework is superseded by the Social framework. Because the Messages application no longer provides functionality that the Instant Message framework requires, in OS X v10.9 and later this framework always returns an empty buddy list.

The QuickTime and QTKit frameworks are superseded by AV Kit and AV Foundation. You can learn more about transitioning to AV Kit and AV Foundation by reading Transitioning QTKit Code to AV Foundation.

The newly added QTMovieModernizer class in QTKit provides support for converting media encoded using older codecs into modern formats that are forward-compatible with AV Foundation.

Note: The QuickTime file format (.mov) is not deprecated. It is the primary media format in OS X and iOS, and is well supported by AV Foundation."

Source: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/releasenotes/MacOSX/WhatsNewInOSX/Articl es/MacOSX10_9.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40013207-SW3

I too am severely disappointed with the whole "Converting" paradigm now prevalent in Quicktime X.

There used to be a time I could proudly point to Apple and the Mac OS and happily chime in with the Apple slogan in popular use at the time and proudly say "It Just Works" ..... Well, I can only surmise that with the passing of Steve Jobs the concept of "It Just Works" has been deprecated right along with all of the old software that "Just Worked" the right way, the first time, right out of the box.

I started using Macintosh computers when Apple first introduce the Mac SE and I have stayed with Mac all the way through Performa series, and thru the G3 and G4 series but it has been five or six years since I could be proud of what Apple has been doing with their desktop computers. I no longer recommend them, or help to promote them (and this is coming from a man that was an Apple Certified Technician for 5 years) because Apple has gotten themselves sidetracked with the whole IOS concept.

Don't get me wrong, what they have been doing with IOS is fabulous ..... for phones .... and tablets. But the dumbing down of their desktop OS and software in an attempt to lower the functionality of a desktop computer to the level of a smart phone is wrong. And this latest debacle with Quicktime X is just another nail in the coffin that is labeled "Apple Software". If you don't believe me just take a look at the reviews on the Mac App store for Pages, Numbers, iMovie, Garage Band, etcetera. The bad reviews FAR outnumber the good ones because ALL of the Apple produced apps are being severely dumbed down.

Apple has lost sight of the fact that the Desktop hardware is still more powerful, has more storage, and is more capable than any IOS device yet produced. And instead of building upon the strengths of their desktop hardware, they are dumbing their apps and OS down to the level of IOS devices.

I've been using Macintosh desktop computers since 1985 (and I currently own an iPhone 5s) but I'm getting so fed up with daily discovering "things that the previous version could do but now the current version is crippled) that I'm ready to jump ship. The continual disappointments with things like Quicktime X not being able to play the most common codecs .... AND it's not even extensible the way Quicktime 7 was .... it just makes me depressed and ready to give up on Apple.

IF .... and this is a great big IF ..... Apple can get back their "It Just Works" attitude they might be able to survive their mistakes.

Apple may have a "It's My Way or The Highway" attitude .... but more and more people, like me, that used to Apple supporters, are looking for the turnoff to get out on the highway and leave Apple behind.

I too am severely disappointed with the whole "Converting" paradigm now prevalent in Quicktime X.

Am wondering what "the whole 'Converting' paradigm" is supposed to mean. While I may agree in theory with most of the things said in this forum, I am also wondering why no one has even mentioned some of the added features. For instance, I don't really remember anyone pointing out that a Finder level conversion service was added to Mavericks that alloiws either medium or high level conversion to H.264/AAC compression formats (which even supports downconversions of AC3 DD5.1 audio to Stereo) or the fact that a ProRes 422 codec was installed replacing AIC/PCM with ProRes422/PCM as the default system intermediate compression format for editing and/or reducing the loss of quality during transcoding activites. As I have been converting my content to H.264/AAC since 2005, I am less concerned with the question of AVI conversion than the current QT X v10.3 conversion requirement for formats like AIC, Animation, PNG, and DV stream files which I had previously considered to be standard editing/archiving video compression formats. Am, therefore, wonder what else is going on here that I have missed—both good and bad.

Well, I'm really concerned about the fact that QTX doesn't even asks you if you want to convert the movie, or apps saving docs or images without asking (autosave).

Sorry, but at least there should be a switch in Settings, or in app Preferences, to allow you to decide if you want that feature or not. For example, I didn't know this feature was active until I opened a photo, I rotated it with the two-finger gesture just to show that feature to a friend, and closed Preview just to find that the image was saved rotated, which I didn't want. And I don't want "versions" every time I open a doc and change a comma: if I want it saved, I know how to do it, I don't want versions of EVERYTHING cluttering my hard disk and making my Time Machine backpus bigger and more time-consuming. No, thanks. And yes, I just learned today how to disable it, and no, not thanks to a switch in Setting or app Preferences, I had to enter a Terminal commands to change every single app Preferences file.

Any way, I have rolled back to Snow Leopard today, there are several other things that I need for my job and they have been simply removed or don't work as they should.

Saluditos,

Ferrán.

Hi, I too have just rolled all the back to Snow Leopard. Really good move...... All those new features hey? I lost the ability to work in spaces and of course the whole Quicktime debacle.

The rolling back process was easy, restored from a point prior to installing Lion and Mavericks and the only issue was my iPhoto libraries. Thank my stars that I stoill had back ups that I had not converted yet.... viva Mavericks...NOT.

I had my SL setup backed up in an old HDD, copied with Carbon Copy Cloner, so it was as easy as formatting and copying all things back.

Saluditos,

Ferrán.

Hola Ferran,

Has encontrado alguna solución a que se vean las miniaturas/vista previa de los videos? la verdad es que es un fastidio esto para los que trabajamos con edición.

Por lo que he visto han sacado una actualización pero sobre esto nada....

Saludos!

Julio

No, que yo sepa no hay posibilidad de ver videos que no sean mov (u otros contenedores que lo contengan) con la vista previa. La única solución es usar reproductores de terceros, tipo VLC, pero, claro, pierdes la comodidad de la vista previa. Y respecto a las miniaturas, ni idea.

Eso, o lo que he hecho yo, volverse a SL 😉

Saluditos,

Ferrán.