iPod touch iPod 4G Videos .MOV? WTF!?

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Could someone please explain to me why on earth Apple would use the .MOV format with their iPhone/iPod Touch movies? Apple HATES anything but M4V, especially for iTunes where it won't play ANYTHING else for movies. I thought for once I'll be able to just move my home movies over to AppleTV and play it right out of the box, so-to-speak since it is Apple to Apple right? WRONG. It's .MOV just like my Canon digital camera and has to be converted to play in iTunes and/or AppleTV (unhacked).

All I can say is WTF Apple!?!?!!?

 

[ericbudz22]

the last time i checked, you can play .mov in itunes natively

 

[tablo13]

the last time i checked, you can play .mov in itunes natively

+1. .mov format is developed by Apple, and is called "QuickTime File Format" on Wikipedia.

 

[goMac]

.mov isn't actually a format, it's just a wrapper.

More than likely the video inside is MPEG4, which means it'll play on your AppleTV just fine.

 

[AdrianK]

Oh dear...

Could someone please explain to me why on earth Apple would use the .MOV format with their iPhone/iPod Touch movies?

MOV is sufficient for h264 and AAC, it works fine.

Apple HATES anything but M4V, especially for iTunes where it won't play ANYTHING else for movies.

No they don't. Why would they "hate" a container which they created?
I just played a .MOV that I created with QuickTimeX in iTunes just fine.

M4V is simply used for iTunes movie and TV shows because it allows extra metadata, such as descriptions, and extra audio channels. Obviously this is not necessary for movies shot on the iPhone.

I thought for once I'll be able to just move my home movies over to AppleTV and play it right out of the box, so-to-speak since it is Apple to Apple right? WRONG. It's .MOV just like my Canon digital camera and has to be converted to play in iTunes and/or AppleTV (unhacked)

Here's the ATV2's specs.

H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format

Please understand that ".MOV" is not the be-all and end-all of the file. It's simply the container. If the specs of the streams within the container do not match the ATV's specs, they will not play.

If you're having trouble with a media file, import it in to "Media Info Mac" (now "Media Inspector") and paste the log, so we can see what's wrong.



Anyway, your issues is that you can't play a movie recorded from iPt4 in iTunes? I don't have an iP4 or iPt4, but I was able to play this clip recorded from an iP4 just fine in iTunes. It is *definitely* the original file, which has not be re-encoded. Would you mind actually elaborating on the issue, rather than going on some nonsensical rant?

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

I could say I feel stupid (because I do), but I guess I've never seen/used a .MOV format file save maybe some old stuff on the Net. When you double-click it, Quicktime comes up which is the default player for everything iTunes cannot handle and I could not check it with AppleTV on my business trip (I guess I should have tried adding to the iTunes on the notebook regardless). I think I confused it with AVI (that's the one my Canon uses, not .MOV, which like I said I don't think I've seen in a long time. I've been dealing with MP4/M4V/MKV/AVI the past few years with ATV.

 

[AdrianK]

What error do you get in iTunes?
Does the sample I posted earlier play in iTunes for you?

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

What error do you get in iTunes?
Does the sample I posted earlier play in iTunes for you?

I don't get an error in iTunes. The problem is I don't get playback on my (1st Gen) AppleTV. Only one of the videos I took while on a trip played back and it was only 5 seconds long. The rest simply don't show up. I don't know if the iPod Touch 4G is using 30fps (which 1st Gen ATV doesn't like) or it's some other problem, but it's not just plug'n'play for Apple TV here.