old school

Long story short - my friend has an mpeg file that won't open in quicktime (6.5 or 7.13 - 'file not understood') but WILL open/play in a program he has called "VLC." media player. There is a transcoding option in that player but when we tried exporting it always ends up a "raw" file, regardless of the destination codec we choose. I'm stumped, but that doesn't take much. I got the impression it might be an mpeg1 file, but don't have a clue how to get it into mpeg2 or some other useable/editable format. I turn to you, oh sultans of swing, for a clue as to how to get this show on the road.

thanks,

john

ps - As long as we're at it, here's a question from another friend:

"Also, I have sent some DVD's to Brazil that I have burned on my apple powerbook in idvd and they cannot watch it on their PC. Is there another format I should be doing this in. Is it part of the quick time render process? As you can see, i need some help."

fyi - I mostly shoot live performance - dance and theater - and try to help local artists here in Seattle as much as I can with editing or tech issues. Thus the occasional trip to the lafcpug for guidance. Think of me as a living lafcpug filter!

thanks again,

john

For the first question I would look into FFMpeg
[www.versiontracker.com]
It's not the slickest GIU around and it takes a bit of fiddling to get it installed but it can handle a lot of file formats for conversion.

A DVD out of iDVD should play on another computer. I have run into a situation where the large number of possible ways one can play a DVD on windows computers (nero, windvd etc) has caused confusion as to how one is supposed to operate. Some of those players need to be forced to find the VideoTS folder and then you still have to hit play. It'll be tough trying to figure it out due to the distance between Seattle and Brazil.

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!

> I have sent some DVD's to Brazil that I have burned on my apple powerbook in idvd and they > cannot watch it on their PC

You shouldn't rule out that your Brazilian contacts might have problematic DVD players in their PCs. A few months ago I'd burnt video DVDs out of DVD Studio Pro, but the client says he can't watch them. We tested the discs on every player we could find -- on a G5, a G4, two DVD players as well as a PC belonging to a friend in another company in the building -- and the discs performed fine. So before they send you on a potential wild goose chase about a problem in your chain, they need to make sure their own equipment is in order as well.

That said, I'm not a big fan of iDVD and I can't vouch for its stability compared with DVD Studio Pro.


www.derekmok.com

great!
i'll try FFMpeg and i'll pass the info on to my friend.
(then i'll post as to the progress)
thanks again!!!
john

i DVD has always worked fine for me as long as the show is under 59 minutes in length. Don't rule out the possibility that your friends pc can't play -R disks.

Good luck!

Kevin

MPEG2 files will not open in QuickTime of any version unless the Apple MPEG2 Extensions are purchased and loaded.

[www.apple.com]

Also, you no doubt have QuickTime Pro since you got it with your Final Cut license. I have one machine without Final Cut and I had to buy QuickTime Pro as a seperate license. QuickTime Pro gives you the ability to export.

There are still some MPEG2 transport streams which will not open like that, but that's a good start. If you were presented with an Elemental Stream MPEG2, that should open in MPEG Streamclip--also from the Apple web site.

Koz

Thanks again everyone. I downloaded ffmpeg and it worked great, so on with the show!
I've also forwarded your advice to my IDVD friend so all is well. I actually was thinking it might be a PAL/NTSC issue, but I guess not - shows what I know : )
thanks!
john

ps - i HAD a quicktime pro license, but when i upgraded quicktime it ate my license (wanted me to pay another $30), so maybe that was the issue all along...? anyway, i've been meaning to update it so this might be the right time. thanks for the advice koz.