Hello everyone, I'm a Windows user who is trying to encode a video so that my Dad's can play it on his iMac (which I don't have access to - he lives in a different state). I encoded a 30 second sample of the video in MP4 format, h264 video, AAC audio, 480x272 resolution (same as I use for my PSP) and emailed it to him. He said the video would play (the position/time indicator moved across the media player) but he had no video or audio. To make a long story semi-short, I emailed that file to another friend who has a MacBook and she said the exact same thing - it played but there was no audio or video. I made about four or five more test clips using h264, Xvid, and AAC, both as MP4's and as AVI's. All I was able to do was to get the AAC audio to play on the Mac's. I was not able to get any video to work (all video's played correctly on my PC with VLC). I thought Mac's would definitely play h264 and AAC by default, correct? So my question is, what video CODEC should I be encoding with to get a video to play on my Dad's iMac? Keep in mind that this is for my Dad who is not familiar with computer multimedia. I really don't want him to have to install any additional software if possible. Since I will be mailing him a burned DVD with the videos on it (slow internet upload on my end), I thought about including a portable version of VLC on the DVD. Can I download a version of VLC Portable for a Mac, unzip it on Windows, and burn it using Nero (on Windows) so that a Mac can use it? I'm using WinXP Home SP3. I don't know the specs of his iMac. It's a 20" desktop iMac that I think is last years model (Intel I believe). He usually keeps all of his software auto-updated so he probably has the latest updates installed. Thank you very much. Matt
There is full VLC for MacOS and works fine with every format, so if quicktime fails try first with VLC. Maybe is a player, not video compression related issue. Anyway, when a codec is missed, quicktime usually doesn't show anything at all (at least in mac).
h.264 in an avi or mp4 container should be playable by quicktime just fine. another way to do it is to use handbrake to encode your video. choose the ipod touch/iphone preset and change the resolution to whatever you prefer. that will be playable with 100% certainty. otherwise yes: just get your dad to install VLC. there's a mac port at videolan.org. just put the DMG on the DVD image, he'll know what to do with it. most people aren't that stupid
Thanks for the replys. I agree that it's a CODEC problem on the Mac's (playback) side. @Fod: I thought that h264 would play back via Quicktime also, but both of the people that I sent the test video to couldn't play it. I don't know which version of Quicktime they were using though. And no, my (76 year old) Dad isn't stupid, but if tell him to "just put the DMG on the DVD image" I don't think he would have a clue what I'm talking about. I've used VLC for a while now and am very happy with it, so this morning I recommended to him to install the Mac version. Thanks again for your help. Matt
that's not what i was telling you to tell him. if your dad saw the vlc dmg on the disc, double clicking it brings up an app windows with very clear instructions ("drag <<that<< icon over >>here>>"). for mac users DMGs are basically folders; they encounter them every day. but anyway, glad you got it sorted.
No worries. I haven't heard back from my Dad yet so I don't know if he got it working or not. Thanks again for your help. Matt
