issues on a mac playing video/audio clips

toasterman

Hi everyone,
I recently switched from XP to a Mac (base model iMac of the new range). I love nearly all of it. Some things take some getting used to, a lot of things I prefer.

Problem I have is playing video clips. VLC is alright, but picture playback seems frequently very dark?
An episode of Studio60 had parts when I really couldn't see what was going on and raising brightness etc, made no difference.

Mplayer isn't so bad (although still seems dark), but when it goes from one thing to another if you have a few parts to the same series, it does this irritating thing of cutting, seeming to shrink it both horizontally, and vertically, then realising its the same size as the last clip, and kind-of "re-growing" it back to exactly the same size as the last one.

I found an official divx player, but most of what I'm watching seems to be xvid encoded instead these days.
I tried playing xvid with the divx player and all I got was an incredibly loud noise out of my speakers until I exited it.

I've tried it using Frontrow, which sometimes works, and sometimes just goes completely black half way way through and exits the software.

So tell me - other than VLC.. is there anything else that plays xvid on a mac?
I did have some mpeg2 stuff I recorded from a tv card on my old pc too, which only seems to play in vlc, and again - seems a little bit dark the whole time.



Also on audio, I found something called Cog that plays audio clips. Doesn't seem to fully understand all wav variations though. For example my digital answerphone messages from Yac don't play on it.
It does at least display the count up and count down that I like, but it doesn't have the option of manual playlist advance that I find very useful.


What I want is Winamp for the mac really, but there isn't one. iTunes is great - but its not always what I want. Plus it doesn't understand video at all really.

Blacksheep1979

sounds possibly like a codec issue - have a quick google for mac codecs or have a look on a mac specific forum for codecs they reccomend

Millionaire

Try the following:

Flip4mac - Plays WMV in Quicktime rather than needing another player.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcomponents.mspx

and Perian

which is excellent for playing various formats in Quicktime including xvid and even flash

http://www.perian.org/index.html#detail

Click on the detail tab on the link to see what it supports.

So you then can get rid of the other stuff you tried as most formats will then play in Quicktime

toasterman

I've got all the codecs from Apple's site I can find. Quicktime pro supports mpeg2 video I think. I don't think Quicktime basic does.

Flip4mac I was using already - that is very handy.

Perian I've just installed but Quicktime still won't play my mpeg2 files I recorded from my tv card on my pc.
I'm not sure - but maybe parts of Quicktime are in a different place on newer versions, or perhaps because it's Leopard?
I found something recently that told me to copy some codec files to a location that doesn't seem to exist.

If quicktime pro supported xvid and divx I'd pay for it. I mean windows doesn't come with the ability to playback xvid, divx, or mpeg2, without additional codecs either. The issue is the only xvid codec for Quicktime I can find seems to still be in alpha, and of course - has bugs. Sometimes it plays fine, sometimes it randomly exits while playing.

VLC seems to intermittently crash too, when it gets to the end of a playlist.
This is my only disappointment so far, with an otherwise great system. Even with these bugs, I still prefer it to Vista.

bat999

Hi
You said that the picture was sometimes too dark when using VLC media player. There are brightness and contrast controls. It took me a while to find them.

When playing the vid click on 'Settings' then 'Extended GUI'.
Then an extra section opens up showing sliders, click on 'Enable' so that they can be adjusted.
I've attached a screenshot.
Then when it's OK click 'Settings' again and untick 'Extended GUI'.

Also VLC should play most audio files (without adding codecs).
:cool:


:cool:

Millionaire

I think you may have to pay for mpeg2 support, unless anyone else knows otherwise. Its abit cheaper than purchasing quicktime pro.

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/

By the way, when you installed the items did you "quit" Quicktime and then start it from afresh? Sometimes that sorts out problems when adding new codecs.

toasterman

bat999 wrote: »

Hi
You said that the picture was sometimes too dark when using VLC media player. There are brightness and contrast controls. It took me a while to find them.

When playing the vid click on 'Settings' then 'Extended GUI'.
Then an extra section opens up showing sliders, click on 'Enable' so that they can be adjusted.
I've attached a screenshot.
Then when it's OK click 'Settings' again and untick 'Extended GUI'.

It's in a different place on the mac version, but while poking around, I found an unticked "advanced" setting, and also a brightness/contrast setting. No idea if it keeps it permanently or not, but its certainly helpful to have the option.
Thanks for that.

toasterman

Millionaire wrote: »

I think you may have to pay for mpeg2 support, unless anyone else knows otherwise. Its abit cheaper than purchasing quicktime pro.

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/

By the way, when you installed the items did you "quit" Quicktime and then start it from afresh? Sometimes that sorts out problems when adding new codecs.

Yeah I did. Like I say, I found some guides where you have to copy files to certain places, and the directories they suggested don't exist. I think Apple have moved something at some point.

Mpeg2 decoder is £15.
Reviewers seem unimpressed by it -> http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/wa/RSLID?revw=D2187

Quicktime Pro is £20, so I'd probably buy that if I was going for one or the other.
I want it because I've just bought a Topfield Freeview recorder, which I believes records to .rec files (apparently playable through VLC). I think .rec files are some kind of weird mpeg2 hybrid, so I'll look into it a bit more before I buy either I think. Thanks for your advice though.

turbobob

I've found Flip4Mac and Perian to be enough to play anything I've thrown at it (in Quicktime or Front Row). Xvid and WMV files are certainly no problem. I did have the DivX codec installed originally but removed it when I installed Perian. I didn't know Quicktime didn't support MPEG2 by default, and mine seems to play that just fine. I do have EyeTV (TV tuner software) installed though which I think probably includes an MPEG2 codec for Quicktime with it?

toasterman

On another note, to hijack my own thread, does anyone know anything that will play one sound when you click it, then stop.

Used for playing sound effects while recording. I can clearly edit them in afterwards but sometimes you get a better reaction if you can just click them and hear them straight away.

At the moment I've been using Winamp on a Windows laptop and turning on manual playlist advance. Means you double click something, it plays, it doesn't advance to next track in list. You just have a very long list.

Any ideas a mac equivalent of this? A friend of mine would like to do the same and is looking at buying a macbook.

toasterman

turbobob wrote: »

I've found Flip4Mac and Perian to be enough to play anything I've thrown at it (in Quicktime or Front Row). Xvid and WMV files are certainly no problem. I did have the DivX codec installed originally but removed it when I installed Perian. I didn't know Quicktime didn't support MPEG2 by default, and mine seems to play that just fine. I do have EyeTV (TV tuner software) installed though which I think probably includes an MPEG2 codec for Quicktime with it?

Quicktime doesn't support mpeg2 natively. Nor does Realplayer. Nor does WMP on Windows - its just that an mpeg2 playback codec thingy seems to be bundled with every powerdvd/windvd-type piece of software on Windows. They're mostly all rubbish too - only one I found to be any good is the nVidia Purevideo one (even with an ATI card). The rest are all choppy/blurry.
Mpeg2 playback seems to be difficult to get to a high standard for some reason.

Well Perian is now installed. I've no idea if its being used, or if Quicktime is still using the alpha codec of xvid I got from somewhere else. Only time, and a few full episodes of things recorded in it, will tell me if it still randomly crashes and exits half way through.
Will have to transfer some stuff from my old pc and see if things that didn't work, now do.

I had a lot of issues with mpeg2 on Windows too. Sometimes you could import it into windows movie maker - sometimes you couldn't. Something recorded in the morning worked, something in the afternoon didn't. Some when you edited apart and removed commercials - wouldn't play in some things when you joined them back together. All very strange.