iPod Editing .mp4 Videos in QuickTime Pro and the .mov Extension?

[TheSpaz]

When I edit an already encoded video like a .mp4 file with QuickTime Pro and try to save it, it saves as a QuickTime .mov file by default. So here's a few questions about doing that.

1. It seems to still be a .mp4 file but, with the extension .mov now. Does this change the file at all? When I change the extension back to .mp4, it no longer will open and play in QuickTime.

2. How come I can't re-save it as a .mp4 file without re-encoding it (such as when I cut out extra unwanted bits.

3. For some reason I like my files to stay in the original format that they were encoded in. How do I modify a .mp4 file without having to save it as a .mov file?

I've always been kinda confused about how QuickTime re-saves a file as a .mov file. What format is this really? If the file was unaltered (still has the same encoding information and everything) then why can it have the .mov extension. I don't get it. Does anyone else do this? Or should I stay away from re-saving in QuickTime.

 

[Krevnik]

I found out how to get around this really bizarre limitation of Quicktime: Export to MPEG-4, but select passthrough for the video and audio codecs. That will just remux your edited content into an MP4 container.

 

[TheSpaz]

I found out how to get around this really bizarre limitation of Quicktime: Export to MPEG-4, but select passthrough for the video and audio codecs. That will just remux your edited content into an MP4 container.

THAT'S EXCELLENT! Thanks! Nobody else was able to tell me that! Woohoo!

 

[Krevnik]

THAT'S EXCELLENT! Thanks! Nobody else was able to tell me that! Woohoo!

I would be VERY careful here, actually... I started using it and encountered a couple issues:

I have the Lord of the Rings (extended) DVDs, where the movie comes in two parts. I encoded each with Handbrake, and then used Quicktime to join the two parts, and used passthrough to write it out to disk. iTunes will bring it in, and even play it, but it won't stream it.

I did the same thing with Fifth Element which I got encoded at 720p, but I had two mp4 files, one with audio, and one with video. I join them using Quicktime, export, iTunes sees it, likes it, but once again won't stream it.

I am still experimenting to find out why this happened and how to fix it after the fact, but make sure you use something like 'prepare for streaming' during the export if this is intended to go into iTunes.

EDIT: Seems like there is a very weird interaction... I tested with raw MP4s, and MP4s without streaming enabled don't appear in the list of shared videos when browsing the library over the network from another machine. However, when you use Lostify on one of these MP4s without streaming enabled, then iTunes will show the .m4v on the shared videos list, but won't stream it.

 

[TheSpaz]

Two things:

1. I'm not streaming my files over the network.
2. I'm not joining 2 segments together, I'm just deleting unwanted bits

 

[Krevnik]

Two things:

1. I'm not streaming my files over the network.
2. I'm not joining 2 segments together, I'm just deleting unwanted bits

I brought it up because it still applies. An edit is an edit. :/

 

[TheSpaz]

I brought it up because it still applies. An edit is an edit. :/

How do you even get videos to stream over iTunes? Also, do you think there's a way to stream an iTMS bought video over a local network so that I can save it from the streamed QuickTime file.

 

[live4ever]

You should be doing all your editing before encoding to mpeg-4. It's much easier to edit something like DV where you have all the frames there (would also alleviate any audio sync issues that might come into play).

 

[Krevnik]

How do you even get videos to stream over iTunes? Also, do you think there's a way to stream an iTMS bought video over a local network so that I can save it from the streamed QuickTime file.

iTunes' "Share Library" feature. It makes the library available to Front Row and iTunes running on other machines. Great for my hacked-together solution of using my Mac Book while waiting for the apple TV.

And no. The stream of iTMS video is still done encrypted, and the receiving computer must be authorized to play it before it will just work. Most of my stuff is ripped by me personally, so I don't really pay much attention to the DRM.

 

[Krevnik]

You should be doing all your editing before encoding to mpeg-4. It's much easier to edit something like DV where you have all the frames there (would also alleviate any audio sync issues that might come into play).

I disagree, to an extent... QT Pro is quite capable of editing without introducing sync issues just fine on its own. This is more of a problem when you use open source tools which aren't as polished in the area of splits and joins.

 

[headcloud]

OMG!! I do not know how to thank you! You have just saved me hours and hours of time. I've been trying to figure this our for years and have been using a combination of Quicktime 7 Pro & iSkysoft Video Converter (usually re-encasulates w/o re-encoding in MOST cases, but sometimes not), and when you trim with that app, then it does usually re-encode, and often times it expands the file size significantly. Overall, I do highly recommend the iSkysoft Video Converter App, as it also has a downloader, which works with MANY sites, including CBS, NBC, Dailymotion, Youtube, and some others. Used to work with ABC and Hulu, but not anymore. I assume it's just a gui for the youtube-dl command line tool. But the converter is by far the fastest one i've used and most of the time, it can change the container from mkv, mov, webm, flv, m4v, and mp4 to each other losslessly without re-encoding and takes about 30 - 60 seconds on a quad-core cpu and about 1-2 minutes on a dual core. But THANK YOU for the quicktime tip. I've been using PlayOn cloud to record some Amazon Prime shows that will be leaving soon before i'll have a chance to finish watching them, and i'm editing out the annoying copyright disclaimer at the beginning. For some reason, the way they are encoded as mp4 is weird because iSkysoft can't use high speed mode and for some reason, even in smart mode, inflates the files and takes 15 minutes. Now i can just trim the 10 seconds off with QT and export w/passthrough and voila! You rule!

I found out how to get around this really bizarre limitation of Quicktime: Export to MPEG-4, but select passthrough for the video and audio codecs. That will just remux your edited content into an MP4 container.