unplayable videos

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unplayable videos

Postby Shichi49 » Tue Jun 02, 2009 10:38 pm

I recently tried downloading a couple videos, and once both of them were done, I tried to play them in QuickTime and got this message:

"The movie could not be opened.
An invalid sample description was found in the movie."

I tried downloading them again, but got the same error messages. I might have gotten the same message on another video I downloaded some time ago but can't recall.

These videos I downloaded were Sungazing and Chained to the Sun. Both of these that I downloaded were also in mp4 format mainly because I wanted something I could watch on my iPod. I downloaded other videos in mp4 format off this site recently and had little problems with them other than slow download speeds.

I just want to know if this can be fixed, either on my end or the site's, or if the uploader can replace them with playable version.
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Re: unplayable videos

Postby Otohiko » Tue Jun 02, 2009 10:57 pm

Ah, well you see, mp4 is basically a container - you shouldn't confuse .mp4 files and Quicktime's mp4 codec.
Basically, think of mp4 as a package that could have different types of content. What you're used to is Quicktime video packaged in mp4. However the two videos you have here are both h.264 video packed into the same container. The problem for you is that you don't have a decoder for h.264 video on your PC, and that's why those files won't work.

If you'd like to play them back on your PC, follow the suggestions made on the Chained to the Sun page you linked - either grab the CCCP codec pack, or just use VLC player. Both will freely handle h.264 video.

If you'd like to get these videos on your iPod however, you'd have to convert them to Quicktime's mp4. I would recommend Videora for that purpose, I used that when I had an iPod and it worked great.
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Re: unplayable videos

Postby hasteroth » Tue Jun 02, 2009 11:15 pm

There shouldn't be a single unplayable video on this site.

VLC is great it's really good for .mkv files, and pretty much everything else.

Videora is one of the best iPod converters out there.
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Re: unplayable videos

Postby Corran » Wed Jun 03, 2009 12:30 am

Hakamichi wrote:There shouldn't be a single unplayable video on this site.


Key word being "shouldn't".

Reality is that there are editors that don't know how to export video from their editing software or upload files to the site. : /

The videos in question in this thread are playable though.
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Re: unplayable videos

Postby hasteroth » Wed Jun 03, 2009 11:30 am

Corran wrote:
Hakamichi wrote:There shouldn't be a single unplayable video on this site.


Key word being "shouldn't".

Reality is that there are editors that don't know how to export video from their editing software or upload files to the site. : /

The videos in question in this thread are playable though.


And that is really quite sad when you think about it.
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Re: unplayable videos

Postby LivingFlame » Wed Jun 03, 2009 8:50 pm

Did nobody really bother linking to the sticky about this very matter?

/disappointed

But like Otohiko said, either CCCP with Media Player Classic or VLC will get you up and running.
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Re: unplayable videos

Postby Shichi49 » Thu Jun 04, 2009 10:52 pm

OP here.

Thanks, but I use a Mac and those programs only work on Windows. I did manage to follow a bunch of links from the CCCP link to get here where I found something I might be able to use. Hopefully, this should help.

Sorry if my claims made me seem ignorant. But it does annoy me when people only upload amvs and fansubs in a format (*cough* mkv *cough*) that I can't play and HAVE to download something. I remember when I had to download Divx so I could play avi's because everyone was uploading in that format, and I couldn't find any mov's or mpeg's. Usually if it's something in high quality or high definition, I couldn't tell much of a difference and don't care that much anyway. Similar note, anyone know any good free video conversion programs I could use (on a Mac)?
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Re: unplayable videos

Postby LivingFlame » Thu Jun 04, 2009 11:13 pm

Should've mentioned you were on Mac. :P

VLC works on Mac.

To transcode to a format for an iPod/iPhone, try out HandBrake.
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Re: unplayable videos

Postby Shichi49 » Thu Jun 04, 2009 11:36 pm

I almost expected my Apple preference to be given since I mentioned Quicktime. I would also prefer to just use QT so I only have to worry about a single player for my videos and simplicity's sake. Thankfully after I downloaded the Divx player I mentioned, I was able to forget about it and keep using QT for avi's afterwards (somehow).

At least I'm not getting a bunch of flames like "Macs SUCK!!" "Just get a Windows PC!" and crap like that. Though, I did recently transition to an Intel Mac. Hopefully, I should my hands on Windows 7 (heard of how much better it is than Vista) so I could finally play some decent visual novels and other games otherwise not available.

That stickied post doesn't seem much help to me, though. Thanks for your advice, anyway.
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Re: unplayable videos

Postby Otohiko » Thu Jun 04, 2009 11:57 pm

Macs can do the playing as well as the PCs though - and the extra downloads should come to be expected, to a certain point. The PC users get to do those too. You definitely do want to get yourself a player/codec package to play x264-encoded mp4s. Sure it's a bit of a distraction, but the improvements for quality/size (and not to mention ease of encoding thanks to Zarx' gui) are definitely worth it, so it's become a bit of a standard, especially here in the AMV community. I agree that it'd be dumb to accommodate for every format someone decides to use on a whim, but in this case it's really a current norm for AMVs and I'd say you're probably looking at a good 80% of good-quality AMVs being released in that format now. So, in this case it's better to bite the bullet and conform. Do search around for options that are out there for the mac, I'm sure there's ways for you to get it to work with whatever player you prefer.
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Re: unplayable videos

Postby LivingFlame » Fri Jun 05, 2009 8:23 am

If you're that intent on sticking with the Quicktime Player, which is really a lacking player compared to ones like VLC, then download Perian and install that. It'll give Quicktime support for formats that it should support from the start. >_>;
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Re: unplayable videos

Postby hasteroth » Fri Jun 05, 2009 12:18 pm

Macs are awesome. [You should] use VLC. IT WORKS FOR ALMOST EVERYTHING. Including everything that QT runs. And BTW QT sucks.


[Corran: Reworded post to be less inflamatory...]
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Re: unplayable videos

Postby Shichi49 » Mon Jun 08, 2009 3:15 pm

OP here

I actually tried installing Perian before, but it didn't do much for me. It was only after I just now tried playing a fansub I downloaded a while ago that I was able to notice I was able to on QT, now. Might be because I recently upgraded from my old G4 to an Intel Dual-Core computer. I recall before, after downloading Perian that I was only able play mkv's with a program called "Front Row" which if you aren't familiar with macs, is something for videos, music, and photos and has its own conveniences. When I did try playing them, though, they would seem pretty laggy and not at all worth watching. But it seems now I can play them on either QT or that MPlayer Extended I recently had to get.
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Re: unplayable videos

Postby hasteroth » Mon Jun 08, 2009 6:49 pm

Shichi49 wrote:OP here

I actually tried installing Perian before, but it didn't do much for me. It was only after I just now tried playing a fansub I downloaded a while ago that I was able to notice I was able to on QT, now. Might be because I recently upgraded from my old G4 to an Intel Dual-Core computer. I recall before, after downloading Perian that I was only able play mkv's with a program called "Front Row" which if you aren't familiar with macs, is something for videos, music, and photos and has its own conveniences. When I did try playing them, though, they would seem pretty laggy and not at all worth watching. But it seems now I can play them on either QT or that MPlayer Extended I recently had to get.


Just use VLC it'll save you so much time and effort. It's free anyways.
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