Help! AMVs downloading as spreadsheet files?!?

[BobbyofAV]

Hello everyone. I could use some help, please.

I just joined a-m-v.org a couple of weeks ago after I found out about it at Ani-Magic 2003 (a wonderful little local con, please support it! http://ani-magic.org ) and tonight was my first attempt at downloading some videos. The results: 4 attempts, 3 odd failures.

Everything appeared to download properly. The first video "Hindi Sad Diamonds" played perfectly on Quicktime player. The next two videos, "The Chibi Things (That Kill)" and "Right Now Someone is Reading This Title", after downloading completly, are being recognized by my Mac as Microsoft Excel spreadsheet files!? I tried downloading "Chibi" again with the same result.

I am using a 2003 model G4 Power Macintosh running OS X 10.2.5, AOL for Mac OS X, a DSL connection, and Quicktime Player (which should handle MPEGs, AVIs, etc.). I am not sure if I need some sort of converter program (I should not) or what. I have used Macs quite successfully for about 15 years and the Internet for about 8 years so I am not lacking in experience or intelligence, but after a couple hours of searching the site forums and my computer here, my tired mind could use some help. This could very well be a cross-platform problem (Windows vs. Macintosh) in which case I will definitely need assistance please, because the software and tricks I used to have for such issues significantly pre-date Mac OS X. I doubt that using another browser (Internet Explorer or Safari) for download would help and I do not want to waste site bandwidth by repeatedly trying the same thing in different ways when there may be a better solution.

Therefore, I humbly submit my dilemma to the more experienced users of this site in the hope that you all will be able to help, and that my question will not seem foolish in any way, such as my having over-looked something obvious at 4 o'clock in the morning.

(Please note: As I only have access this nice computer when I visit my family, it may take me a few days or more to respond. Please be patient. I do not even know if I can access a-m-v.org on my ... WebTV. Please do not laugh. I will have to check, again. &*^%#@ Microsoft!)

Thank you all very much. 8)

[Phade]

Hey,

I'm not a Mac user, but have you tried forcing the files open with a media player instead of just clicking the downloaded file? Perhaps that would help. Just trying to think of what to do...

Phade.

[BobbyofAV]

Greetings. Thank you for taking an interest in my situation.

As a matter of fact I have tried directly opening the problem files with many different programs including Quicktime Player, Real Player, Microsoft Word and EXCEL, web browsers, and various others. I had no luck, except bad. The only interesting result came when I tried MacLinkPlus Deluxe (a good, general-purpose translation program I finally re-located) which claimed that the files in question were " .COM files similar to .EXE files and cannot be used on a Mac". This seems to suggest that files might be compressed archives, but any common format would have been decompressed automatically by my Mac and its software. I found this result to be suspicious and in a fit of desperation I decided to try the unthinkable.

I tried using a Windows PC.

(It is a Dell Dimension (model ?) running Windows XP, Internet Explorer, and Windows Media Player 9. I think. I have managed to survive the entire history of the personal computer without needing to resort to Windows or DOS, hence my knowledge of such is quite limited. I am sure those platforms are OK in their own way, but I have never needed them before and I would prefer not to start now. Isn't a-m-v.org Mac-friendly? )

Anyway, the PC accessed the website just fine and when I clicked on the download link for "Right Now Someone is Reading This Title", the PC identified it as a audio/video link and kindly offered to play the file, which I thought was very nice of it. Ha. When I said yes, it seemed to stop downloading and told me that the file was not compatible and gave me a long list of media and compression file-types it could handle. Based on that list, I cannot see why the PC refused to be more helpful.

So I am at wits' end once again and still desperate for help. Could someone please verify that "The Chibi Things (That Kill)" and "Right Now Someone is Reading This Title" really are properly operational files? I do not know what the problem could be if they are. Anyway, I guess I will try to download a few different videos to see if I keep having the same problem. It is all I can think of right now.

Thank you again for your merciful assistance.

P.S. I mean absolutely no offense to Windows users and I hope that none is taken.

8)

[kthulhu]

Do you have any of the video codecs commonly used here installed?

[AbsoluteDestiny]

Do you have any of the video codecs commonly used here installed?

Right Now is an mpeg, so if that is causing problems then it cant be a codec issue.

Chibi things is possibly a divx though

[Farlo]

if you need the codecs

kazaalite codec pack

i know nothing of the problem, just linking the codec pack incase you need it.

[derobert]

If you're on OS X, hold down Command-Option and drag the file onto QuickTime player. Will probably work....

Also, QuickTime really does have limited codec support, I'd suggest vlc or mplayer. Or at least install the ffmpeg qtx.

[BobbyofAV]

Hello all. I finally have an update on my situation.

At this point it seems that the intial problem was due to AOL for Mac OS X software. Although intial attempts using Apple's Safari web browser did not work (perhaps I had some sort of conflict at first with two different web browser programs trying to access the same site simultaneously) subsequent efforts using Safari have been very successful. All files I have downloaded have been properly recognized as MPEG or AVI files.

At this point I found out that, indeed, Quicktime has it limits and that the replies regarding codec support were quite prescient. Quicktime Player kept having fits with AVI files where DivX and Xvid were involved.

I really appreciate everyone's help, but I wish to give extra thanks to derobert whose suggestion of VLC and MPlayer brought my attention to two programs that seem to be exactly what I need. (I would also appreciate a clarification on what and where "ffmpeg qtx" is. A Quicktime extension from Apple or something?)

Unfortunately, both programs' current versions are downloaded as .dmg (disk image) files and the appropriate program, Disk Copy, keeps telling me that the files " ... failed to mount due to error 95. (no mountable file systems)". Apple's website was not very helpful in solving this problem, and I am waiting to see if someone replies to my query on that issue at the MPlayer support forum I found. In the meantime, I managed to download an older version of MPlayer which was available as a Stuffit archive. Success! MPlayerOSX2beta4 has successfully played all of the files I have thus far tried that Quicktime could not handle.

So at this point it appears that I am successfully downloading and playing files and I really appreciate the help in acheiving this.

Now if by any chance someone has any helpful ideas regarding my troubles with .dmg files or getting AOL to not mess me up, I would love to hear them. If I can, I would prefer to use AOL as my proxy server in order to provide better security for my DSL connection's static IP address ... a good habit, I think.

Otherwise, I APPEAR to be doing alright now. Again, I wish to thank everyone for their attention and assistance.

Bobby 8)

[derobert]

(I would also appreciate a clarification on what and where "ffmpeg qtx" is. A Quicktime extension from Apple or something?)

I thought there was a third-party quicktime extension / component / whatever they're called which allowed quicktime to use ffpmpeg. Can't find it now...

Unfortunately, both programs' current versions are downloaded as .dmg (disk image) files and the appropriate program, Disk Copy, keeps telling me that the files " ... failed to mount due to error 95. (no mountable file systems)".

Disk copy isn't the appropriate program (any more). Now, starting with Panther, Disk Utility is. Also, did you give hdiutil (command-line) a try?

The images work for me.

If I can, I would prefer to use AOL as my proxy server in order to provide better security for my DSL connection's static IP address ... a good habit, I think.

Any security strategy relying on the secrecy of IP addresses is worthless... I bet the proxy lets it out, anyway.

[BobbyofAV]

Hello.

Well, I updated my OS X system software from 10.2.5 to 10.2.8 and I can now access those DMG files. The two programs (VLC 0.6.2 and MPlayerOSX2b6) seem okay, although the new version of MPlayer seems to have a non-functional volume slider on the control window.

Unfortunately, neither seems to be able to play video in the WMV files of certain AMVs such as "Keiichi to Belldandy", "Every Breath You Take", and "Ah! My Goddess: The Music Video". Another AMV, "It's Just a Chick Thing" will not play with anything and appears that it might be corrupted or something. This adds up to four AMVs that I cannot rate because I cannot play them.

So ... any ideas? Please?

By the way, my security concerns appear to have been timely. In the past few days, I have received two suspicious e-mails on AOL trying to con me out of credit card and other billing information ... one looked really good, I hate to say (but not good enough ). Other than giving my address to sourceforge.net when I wanted to post a question on the MPlayer support forum and simply surfing some foreign shareware sites to get MPlayer and VLC at their "official" sources, I do not know why this happened so suddenly.

Does anyone have any warnings about known places-to-avoid and other info that they want to pass along ... especially if it is particularly relevant to people looking to download AMVs and related software?

Anyway, as always, I appreciate any help and thank you for your time.


Bobby 8)