Is quicktime supposed to be crap with big files?

Discussion in 'Mac Apps and Mac App Store' started by dogbone, Nov 21, 2006.

Most Liked Posts
  1. dogbone, Nov 21, 2006

    dogbone macrumors 68020

    dogbone

    Joined:
    Sep 16, 2005
    Location:
    S33.687308617200465 E150.31341791152954
    #1
    If I try to play a big file say about a 200mb .avi on qt pro it just stutters, even with nothing else open. But it plays perfectly in vlc. Is this normal behaviour for QT. Just wondering.
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  2. killmoms, Nov 21, 2006

    killmoms macrumors 68040

    killmoms

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2003
    Location:
    Washington, DC
    #2
    I'd say it's not normal, but it depends on the codec used (and which version of said codec you have installed). I've played 1.5GB DivX AVI's with AC3 audio on my old PowerBook no problem (and of course on the Mac Pro too) so I'm thinking it might just be that particular file, or a problem with the specific version of DivX you have installed. More details would help. What kind of Mac? Tech specs? Version of Quicktime and DivX in question?
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  3. dogbone, Nov 21, 2006

    dogbone thread starter macrumors 68020

    dogbone

    Joined:
    Sep 16, 2005
    Location:
    S33.687308617200465 E150.31341791152954
    #3
    emac1.42 1.5gbRAM10.4.8 QT7.1.3 divx5.2.1

    It happens on all my largish files.

    Does QT use DivX to play avi files then? and does QT find the divx codec automatically or would it not play at all without DivX installed.
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  4. killmoms, Nov 21, 2006

    killmoms macrumors 68040

    killmoms

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2003
    Location:
    Washington, DC
    #4
    AVI is just a container format, it can hold video that's been encoded with any one of a number of codecs. So, if the video uses DivX as its codec, then Quicktime decodes it with DivX. If the AVI file held some other format, you'd need a different decoder. If the AVI had DivX and you didn't have DivX installed, it wouldn't play.

    That is a REALLY old version of DivX though. You might want to go to labs.divx.com and get the latest DivX beta for OS X.
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  5. balamw, Nov 21, 2006

    balamw Moderator

    balamw

    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Aug 16, 2005
    Location:
    New England
    #5
    I could be wrong but, it's my understanding that AVI is a lousy format for large files as it is not designed for streaming. Essentially teh whole file needs to be present and read since some citical info resides at the end of the file.

    Hence the abandonment of AVI as a container in favor of WMV.

    B
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  6. killmoms, Nov 21, 2006

    killmoms macrumors 68040

    killmoms

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2003
    Location:
    Washington, DC
    #6
    Eh, it's old and hack-y, but it's not that bad for large files in and of itself. Which is to say, there are better container formats (MP4 being my favorite), but it's not like AVI is automatically crap for everything. And there's still plenty of them out there. Regardless, AVI itself isn't the reason the OP's having trouble.
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  7. dogbone, Nov 21, 2006

    dogbone thread starter macrumors 68020

    dogbone

    Joined:
    Sep 16, 2005
    Location:
    S33.687308617200465 E150.31341791152954
    #7
    OK, I've installed the latest divx, 6.5.2 and that seems to have fixed up the problem. But when I looked in my hd/lib/quicktime folder there was a divx6 component in there before I downloaded and it doesn't look like anything new has been added in there. So where would div x have put it's new codecs or are there other components somewhere?.

    I take it then that given the choice I am better off choosing mp4?
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  8. killmoms, Nov 21, 2006

    killmoms macrumors 68040

    killmoms

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2003
    Location:
    Washington, DC
    #8
    It probably updated the one that was there. Or it was installed in your user's QT components folder instead of the system-wide one.

    I guess? I mean, if the files work, who cares? If you're going to encode your own it's up to you. I know what I'm partial to because I've got experience with both.
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)

Share This Page