[Craig Seeman]

Make sure you get rid of preference files and related as well.

[Craig Seeman]

Create a New User Admin account. Reboot. Log into the new account.
Open the Motion project and try to send to Compressor in the new account.
This will let you know whether the issue is user account or system based.

[Craig Seeman]

Motion should be 5.1 and Compressor 4.1.1. Make sure your version are current first.

[Craig Seeman]

Looks like if you visit the site and don’t buy anything, they email you a 10% discount code which seems usable for Universe Premium.

[Craig Seeman]

Good to hear. I wonder what the threshold for “Large File Size” is given that “large” by itself, is subjective.
I wonder what it might be changing.

[Craig Seeman]

So if all three player (VLC, QT7, QT 10.3) have issues then there would be an issue with the encode it seems.

In HandBrake main window, you’ll see a checkbox that says “Large file size.” Enable that and try doing the encode again.

[Craig Seeman]

Both Squeeze and Episode have x264 codec. The encoders in both programs would generally allow you to switch from MainConcept H.264 to x264 (which is better quality).

Episode and, I believe Squeeze, support MPEG2 Program, Transport, Elementary Streams as sources. You may need to make sure you’re using current versions.

I means supported as input
https://www.telestream.net/pdfs/datasheets/Episode6_Format_Support.pdf

Input also listed
https://www.sorensonmedia.com/squeeze/squeeze-9/squeeze-standard/#requirements
Squeeze 9. Version 6.5 is an antique.

Episode is version 6.4.3.

So if you can’t open an MPEG2 source in either, either you source has an issue, may not be “standard” in some fashion or, you’re not using current version.

[Craig Seeman]

MPEG2 Program, Transport, Elementary Streams?
Elementary wouldn’t have audio.
I’m not sure of AME’s ability to handle all the above nor what version you’re using.

You may want to test with a trail version of Telestream Episode or Sorenson Squeeze.

Compressing a heavily compressed file is always going to be a quality hit so do realize what you’re losing for the size reduction.

You’d probably want to use x264 codec CABAC Entropy High Profile for best possible quality .mp4 files if using either of the above.

You might also want to test using Handbrake to see if it can handle your source formats.

[Craig Seeman]

QT7 uses Quicktime. QT 10.3 uses CoreMedia. VLC has it’s own.
This can determine if it’s the source/encode at issue vs the ability of certain players under certain circumstances.

[Craig Seeman]

Regardless. please test in the other players.
If you want help follow my instructions.