HT202884: QuickTime Player converts certain files before playing them
Learn about QuickTime Player converts certain files before playing them
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All replies
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Helpful answers
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Feb 7, 2014 6:08 AM in response to paxtersby Limnos,★HelpfulI don't think Apple ever supported AVI container, nor did Quicktime have an extensive codec package. You had probably installed the Perian package of codecs in the past. Perian was discontinued and they recommend using VLC media player instead. You can still try to install it on your computer but I don't know about performance under Mavericks (I don't run Mavericks so I cant say).
VLC media player - http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ - general media player that plays just about anything.
Perian from http://perian.org/
By the way, frankly there is no evidence Apple routinely goes through this site looking for suggestions, and the terms of use of the forum prohibit "polling" (which your request for starting a petition may cover). You can send requests through feedback links but once Apple decides something is old and don't want to support it then the thing is pretty much history and you need to look th third party support (of which there is plenty for playing AVI on Mac).
http://www.apple.com/feedback/ - Apple products feedback links
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Feb 7, 2014 6:10 AM in response to paxtersby Timothy Fink,★HelpfulQuickTime, as far as I can remember has only supported certain codecs. Many others probably are added on by 3rd party applications and additional software.
If you did a clean install for Mavericks, it may be many of the additional codecs were left behind in the previous OS. It may be a good idea to reinstall any 3rd party applications for video editing, so they may reinstall their codecs into the System, if needed. Or perhaps just the codec files in the OS are now too old of a format (32-bit) to be supported.
Do a web search on the manufacturers of your microscopes and see if they have updated drivers and codecs for their hardware for Mavericks.
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Feb 7, 2014 6:19 AM in response to Limnosby paxters,Thanks for the response. I should have done some more searching before angrily posting this: you're absolutely right that I had installed the Perian plugin, which no longer functions in Mavericks.
I'll submit a request through the feedback link, I appreciate your advice.
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Feb 7, 2014 6:20 AM in response to Timothy Finkby paxters,Thanks for the response; I'll try reinstalling Perian and searching for codecs from the camera manufacturers.
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Feb 7, 2014 6:35 AM in response to paxtersby QuickTimeKirk,All of your older files will play without issue in QuickTime Player 7 (Utilities folder, if installed).
AVI was a Microsoft invention and Mac had only support for the Cinepak codec and a few audio codecs. Microsoft abandoned AVI nearly 20 years ago. But camera makers could save a few bucks by not paying for more modern codecs so they still used the AVI container.
Perian has dicontinued development but the software is still available and works just fine in 10.9.1.
New in QuickTime 10.3 is the "conversion" of older codecs to more modern ones. When you open a file that uses older codecs 10.3 will convert the file. You only need to do this once per file and you can then trash all of your out of date AVI files.
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Feb 7, 2014 6:43 AM in response to paxtersby cbs20,The developer for Perian doesn't support the software and last updated it for Mountain Lion, but won't be optimizing it for Mavericks. Your best bet is to use VLC media player for your file types not supported by Quicktime.
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Feb 7, 2014 6:51 AM in response to QuickTimeKirkby Limnos,QuickTimeKirk: That's a bit disconcerting about the new QT auto conversion feature. If a person is a researcher then likely they will want the highest quality video. Conversion, unless it is to a very bulky lossless format, will always carry the risk of loss of quality in transcoding. One can debate if one will notice this loss, but I would never get rid of the original files, especially since they are the root source for scientific data. Because I am keeping them I would figure there's no real point in having to store two copies of something and would prefer to simply have older formats open in something that would play them directly such as VLC, NicePlayer, MPlayer, or see if the Perian codecs still work. I presume you can turn off the auto conversion in preferences?
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Feb 7, 2014 7:08 AM in response to Limnosby QuickTimeKirk,What good is a dead file format or years out of date codecs?
The conversion in 10.3 is automatic and must run before playback can begin. It can't be turned off but you are not forced to keep the new file and the original is not deleted.
None of this applies to QuickTime Player 7 but it will not be long before support for it is dropped by Apple.
Apple did away with floppy disks with the iMac in '99. Optical media (CD and DVD's) is dead at Apple.
Digital storage is the only way a "researcher" will work in a few more years.
Scientist to team: "I have stored all of our research data on VHS tape and it will last for decades". Who has a VHS machine today?
The conversion in 10.3 isn't just for non natively supported file formats. It's for any of the dozens of "legacy" codecs currently supported by QuickTime Player 7. Sorenson Video, Motion JPEG, Cinepak and dozens of audio codecs.
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Feb 7, 2014 7:26 AM in response to QuickTimeKirkby paxters,You bring up a good point that some storage media die out quickly, but some file formats have persisted to the point that the could be considered "standards": .pdf, .jpg, .gif. It's frustrating that there seems to be no strong standard for media, though you could argue that .mp4 and .mov have persisted. I don't think I'd be alone in adding .avi to that list, since it has been a fairly ubiquitous format at least for the past decade. Nearly every piece of equipment that I use writes to an .avi container.
Sorry to veer off topic, but do you know an easy way of checking which codec is used to write a particular file? This can be done in Quicktime, but only if Quicktime recognizes it.
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Feb 7, 2014 7:40 AM in response to QuickTimeKirkby Limnos,Some things can be converted without transforming the data. I have data in Excel spreadsheets that is identical to the data in the Lotus Symphony spreadsheets in which I entered the data in 1986. Converting video does involve data transformation which is undesirable unless it comes to a point where it is unavoidable. Speaking as a research scientist, one is obligated to try to preserve original data to a reasonable extent. In this case the video is not "dead". It can still be played. It's just Apple's behavior that anything older than about 4 years is old-fashioned and to be forgotten that's mandating stepping outside Apple software to do so. Yes, it would be a good idea to convert so when future upgrades mean no old codecs will play at least the data are available to some degree. I still would not get rid of the old files since they are the original data, and if the person spends 30 seconds installing VLC player they can still view the original data for another 10 years at least (if they keep the computer that long -- my computer is 12 years old and I can still run applications on it dating from the early 1990s).
By the way, you can still buy VHS players. I agree they will not be around forever, and if it's a family video you want to play 20 years from now then you may as well convert it now, but then that's not research evidence.
Optical media are dead at Apple, but still extensively used outside Apple. I agree in 20 years it will be hard to find a DVD player but visit right now any store selling movies or music, or a public library, and optical media are still around. Apple can force the issue where their hardware is involved, especially as regards to installing Apple software, and of course by pushing online media sales (if you buy from the iTunes Store, which I don't).
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Feb 7, 2014 7:45 AM in response to paxtersby QuickTimeKirk,There are a handful of image formats that will last decades into the future. But I doubt .gif will be one of them. The patents and fees for its use expired ten years ago and yet you see fewer of them every day.
There are standards in video and they are controlled by MPEG.
Apple plays by these standards and pays the fees there use requires. Other vendors don't always play by the rules and the only reason they do so is about money.
The only reason you see a camera company using the AVI container is they don't have to pay any fees.
The Movie Inspector window of QuickTime Player 7 will show the audio and video codecs used in a file. VLC also can display some information.
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Feb 7, 2014 7:52 AM in response to paxtersby Limnos,Codec recognition: There's various utilities out there with "Media Info" in their name. I have an older one called MediaInfoMac. It was free but I think the newer versions are shareware. I have seen others that also have media info in the name and are free but they require a newer computer so I haven't tried them. These utilities give pretty detailed information, sometimes including extra flags that may have been used in coding that may affect playback on some devices.
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Feb 7, 2014 8:09 AM in response to QuickTimeKirkby Timothy Fink,QTK,
I just ran into that new QuickTime "conversion" happening with an old video file last night. It opened up with the (converted) in the file name. I was unaware of this updating until then.
Good to know.
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Feb 7, 2014 8:26 AM in response to Timothy Finkby babowa,Mine changed a perfect 1280x720 HD QT .mov (shot with a Canon, edited in an earlier version of iMovie and exported using H.264) to a slightly distorted 1152x704 (or something similar - am not on the Mavericks machine at the moment). I was not pleased as I did not expect that - I simply doubleclicked on the movie to quickly see if that was the one I wanted to use and was met with the conversion dialog. It resulted in a .converted file which replaced the original. Sent a bug report to Apple; their response "working as expected".