quicktime Pro won't save mp4 as mov

Question

Level 1

0 points

quicktime Pro won't save mp4 as mov

I've got several .mp4 files (created by myself with Sony Vegas using h.264 codec) that I'm trying to convert to faststart .mov files for Internet playback. I just picked up QT Pro and as I understand it I should be able to open the file and simply Save As a mov file to get a new non-rerendered h.264 encoded .mov). When I attempt save as, new files never get created. My save window goes away. When I close QT it asks me to save my changes again, still without saving the file.

I also attempted to export from QT Pro using same h.264 (same codec as mp4 was created with). The file that is created is large (obviously re-encoded, something I DON'T want) and I don't see video, just hear audio.

The original files play fine in QT 7.

Any thoughts?

Thanks, Kurtmo

core2 6600 - 7900 GS Graphics Windows XP Pro

Posted on Mar 22, 2007 9:44 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Kyn Drake

Level 7

21,597 points

Mar 22, 2007 10:28 AM in response to Kurtmo

Welcome to the discussions, Kurtmo.

When you Save As.. are you saving as the same name or a new name? If saving as a new name, you enter it and it doesn't create any file?

Reply

Answer 2

Kurtmo Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 22, 2007 11:21 AM in response to Kyn Drake

I have tried to Save and Save As. I have tried leaving the filename as is (with the .mov extension) as well as changing the name to bob.mov. Both without luck.

All it should be doing is changing the QT container info.

Reply

Answer 3

Kurtmo Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 22, 2007 11:47 AM in response to Kurtmo

Oops. Specifically, no file is created at all.

Reply

Answer 4

Kyn Drake

Level 7

21,597 points

Mar 22, 2007 12:25 PM in response to Kurtmo

Does the vegas create proper .mp4 files or are these in an .AVI wrapper? Just trying to determine why a simple "Save As..." wouldn't work.

Another thing you can try is to do an export BUT set the compression settings for the audio and the video to "Passthru". This will just take what you've got and wrap it in QuickTime's .mp4 format, then a "Save As..." to a movie should work.

Reply

Answer 5

Kurtmo Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 22, 2007 2:14 PM in response to Kyn Drake

Does the vegas create proper .mp4 files or are these
in an .AVI wrapper? Just trying to determine why a
simple "Save As..." wouldn't work.

The file is a regular .mp4 file created using Sony Vegas. The file plays fine in QT 7 players. I put some screen shots of my test mp4 with movie info and the encoding options for export. As you can see, I don't get a "passthru" option, so I don't get to far with the work around.

Here are the two screen shots:

http://jewellhome.net/MovieSettings.jpg

http://jewellhome.net/ExportSettings.jpg

Another thing you can try is to do an export BUT set
the compression settings for the audio and the video
to "Passthru". This will just take what you've got
and wrap it in QuickTime's .mp4 format, then a "Save
As..." to a movie should work.

The other thing I've noticed, I don't see anything in the preview window when I try to select different settings for the export. As I mentioned earlier, exported files end up with a white screen in place of video (and a large file size, go figure).

Any other thoughts?

core2 6600 - 7900 GS Graphics Windows XP Pro

Reply

Answer 6

Kyn Drake

Level 7

21,597 points

Mar 22, 2007 2:51 PM in response to Kurtmo

Instead of choosing to export to .mov, choose MPEG-4 and then you should see "Passthrough" under video format under the video tab and audio format under the audio tab. See if you can get it to create a QuickTime .mp4 this way.

Reply

Answer 7

Kurtmo Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 22, 2007 7:43 PM in response to Kyn Drake

This got me further, but When I tried to export as pass-thru it ran to 80% then died with "error -108: an unknown error occured".

Later I tried a different mp4 file I'd picked off a podcast. Movie info for it shows it was using the apple mpeg4 decompressor. I believe my files were generated using mainconcept h.264 codec. They show up as H.264 decoder.

I hope I'm not doomed. Any ideas about hunting down my error code?

Reply

Answer 8

Kyn Drake

Level 7

21,597 points

Mar 23, 2007 7:53 AM in response to Kurtmo

Ok, one more thing you can try to see if you can localize the problem, perhaps there's something wrong with the Sony created file. Before you do the passthrough, cut the file in half (removing the second half). If it processes that successfully, then try it again, removing the first half. Was there a discontinuity in Sony's creation of the file? Is there anything visually wrong in QuickTime with any part of the file?

Reply

Answer 9

Kurtmo Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 23, 2007 10:30 AM in response to Kyn Drake

Ok, one more thing you can try to see if you can
localize the problem, perhaps there's something wrong
with the Sony created file. Before you do the
passthrough, cut the file in half (removing the
second half). If it processes that successfully, then
try it again, removing the first half. Was there a
discontinuity in Sony's creation of the file? Is
there anything visually wrong in QuickTime with any
part of the file?

I gave that a shot as well and still get the error, even on the first half. I think it has to do with QT not liking the H.264 codec. It can play it, but it can't re-encode.

In the end, I can generate a QT out of Vegas using another codec, then re-encode with QT Pro, but I was hoping to avoid a second render. I tried this and I got a decent H.264 out of QT Pro.

My first test going this other route was using a sorenson 3 encoded mov. That already has compression though. I'd like to start as clean as possible. I usually use animation codec to go from one app to another in lossless format, but that can get kinda big. Have any recommendation on the best codec (besides my failed h.264) to bring files into QT Pro for transcode?

Thanks!

Reply

Answer 10

Kyn Drake

Level 7

21,597 points

Mar 23, 2007 11:18 AM in response to Kurtmo

If you've got the disk space, you could use the animation or png codecs that should give you a nice high quality (large file size) document perfect for a source.

Reply

Answer 11

Mar 25, 2007 8:03 AM in response to Kurtmo

.

Reply