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Final Film (HD) Won’t Play on Windows QT
I just finished a little 2 minute Promo Film for my client. It was shot and cut in XDCAM EX 1080P30. One of the versions they wanted was the finished film in full 1080P for them to show on their laptops to their customers. I kicked out a QT Movie from the timeline, saved it as a standard QT Movie file (not the FCP “version” that you get from the timeline) at about 650 Megs, threw it on a DVD and sent it over to the client…and moved on to the next project.
They just called and said it would not play on their Windows machines (all have the latest version of QT for WIndows), so I ran over to take a look. The QT window comes up at full 1080P size…the soundtrack plays…but no picture. BTW it plays fine on all of my laptop, tower and iMac Macs!
Can somebody help explain why the film won’t play. Do I need to do something to dumb it down or down convert it to play on Windows. Do I need to export it differently? Not quite sure.
Also I tried to export it to a wmv file just for fun and QT Pro (with Flip for Mac) would not do it. I assume the format has something to do with that.
I’ve only been shooting/cutting in HD for 18 months or so…Never run up against this before.
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15 Replies
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#48 – Cannot view DVCPRO HD or HDV or ProRes on my computer.
Shane’s Stock Answer #48 – Cannot view DVCPRO HD, HDV or ProRes QT files on your computer.
The DVCPRO HD, HDV and ProRes codecs only comes with FCP. If your computer does not have FCP installed, it cannot view these quicktime files. It doesn’t matter if it is a Mac or PC, without FCP installed, you cannot view these files.
If you need to view ProRes material, you can download the ProRes decoder (mac and windows compatible) for ProRes
https://support.apple.com/downloads/Apple_ProRes_QuickTime_Decoder_1_0_for_Windows.
https://support.apple.com/downloads/Apple_ProRes_QuickTime_Decoder_1_0_for_Mac
If your footage was captured as DVCRO HD you can buy the Calibrated DVCPRO HD decoder:
https://www.calibratedsoftware.com/QDVCProHD.asp
HDV, XDCAM? Calibrated has you covered too:
https://www.calibratedsoftware.com/QXD.asp
If you have MXF files from a P2 camera and you need to view the footage on a computer without FCP, you can download P2CMS from Panasonic:
https://www.panasonic.com/business/provideo/p2-hd/downloads-and-updates.asp
Or you need the other party to compress the footage into a format your computer can play, like H.264.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
[Dave LaRonde] You can also use Compressor to convert the ProRes HD file into mp4. Or H.264.
If you make an mp4, change the file extension to .mpg. Some MS programs don’t seem to know .mp4 is the same thing.
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Thanks guys…doesn’t seem logical to cook that beautiful footage into an mp4…but it’s cooking in Compressor right now. We shall see.
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I actually did decide to pop for the Flip for Mac Upgrade…it was only $80 from what I had. Small price for making my clients in the WIndows world happy.
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[Mike Petty] “Small price for making my clients in the WIndows world happy.”
Go crazy! After all they only have 90% market share.
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Let me ask you this, Mike. Do the movie trailers at Apple’s website look bad? I don’t think so at all. As a matter fact, the quality is stunning. This why I encode everything into H.264 only now. Somtimes the files are at full res but most are slightly smaller. H.264 is incredible.
Give it a serious look before spending lots of money on a computer specific format.
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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
https://web.mac.com/schazamproductions
schazamproductions@mac.com -
Wayne, I do my best to make sure all my clients can read H264 files. For years I have recommended to them to download VLC media player if they don’t already have quicktime.
But there are still heaps of people who just have Windows Media player and get confused when it asks them to download a codec. For that reason, if a file has to be made available to the widest audience, a WMV version plus an H264 version should be made available.
Lately I have discovered Miro – an amazingly good free media player that plays full screen HD mpeg/ H264 files much more smoothly than quicktime on windows. It also has a feature that connects you to legal free content from NASA and hi def wildlife & underwater footage. It is cross platform so although you don’t need it on the Mac, it is worth considering if you are coaching clients with Linux & Windows.
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I concur that those trailers are excellent…can you give me/us some insight into your H.264 workflow?
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OK kids here’s an update…
I cooked the file in compressor as an mp4 ( .mpg) it looked pretty good. I just got back from the client and it played fine in QT but would not play in Windows Media Player! And as has been so correctly pointed out…90% of the world will watch it that way!
The flip side is I did do the upgrade for fip4mac HD and ran it through that and the result was horrible. I messed with all sorts of setting and there results were wholly unacceptable.
So I am back to square one it seems…Any ideas???
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[Mike Petty] “So I am back to square one it seems…Any ideas???”
Thus the problem we all face…
Do we make it outputted video gorgeous or do we make it compatible to all?
This is the question I ALWAYS ask my clients, do you want quality or compatibility? Almost all of the time, the client picks quality over compatibility. At this point, I show them how to download and install Quicktime and if they want a file on a CD, then I also give them a Quicktime install file.
Also, we have a private client preview site that I include a link for QuickTime at Apple’s website for them to install if their install is not up to snuff.
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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
https://web.mac.com/schazamproductions
schazamproductions@mac.com
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