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Mac Owners: Can you play MP4 files???

Woodcrest64

Woodcrest64

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Just wondering if you can play MP4 video files on OSX without having to install or buy anything. I've had such a pain with my windows machine in trying to find codecs to play these files. Gah!

Just wondering if the Mac is also easier on this end too. I can't wait till Leopard because I'm jumping off this windows ship asap.
 
I believe it's the default format in iTunes actually, but I could be wrong. I know I've played them.

Good luck on going Mac. I know it's been great for me.
 
yea thats what i encode to with handbrake

if you come across something that wont play, try vlc

i also think the plugin perian has alot of goodies for quicktime
 
mp4 (MPEG 4) is actually a standard that Apple really pushed with Quicktime 6. So, naturally, you will be able to use .mp4 just fine on a Mac (and no, you don't have to buy anything extra).

For confirmation, see Apple's quicktime page.
 
You guys are great. I always get help here.

You know what's strange about quicktime and mp4 files. Quicktime at least on my WinXP machine will not play MP4 files and neither will iTunes.

HOWEVER, they both will play M4V files which is mpeg4 but in a different file extension.
 
Woodcrest64 said:
You guys are great. I always get help here.

You know what's strange about quicktime and mp4 files. Quicktime at least on my WinXP machine will not play MP4 files and neither will iTunes.

HOWEVER, they both will play M4V files which is mpeg4 but in a different file extension.
Click to expand...

That is odd, what happens when ou drag a .mp4 file into iTunes, or what happens when you open it? I is possible you have a differntt program as the default program to open it so right click and open with quicktime. Should work.
 
fivetoadsloth said:
That is odd, what happens when ou drag a .mp4 file into iTunes, or what happens when you open it? I is possible you have a differntt program as the default program to open it so right click and open with quicktime. Should work.
Click to expand...



It plays sound but shows no video.
 
Woodcrest64 said:
Just wondering if you can play MP4 video files on OSX without having to install or buy anything. I've had such a pain with my windows machine in trying to find codecs to play these files. Gah!

Just wondering if the Mac is also easier on this end too. I can't wait till Leopard because I'm jumping off this windows ship asap.
Click to expand...

Quicktime plays MP4 video files just fine. The only problem you'll have is deciding whether or not to spring for an extra 30 bucks to go to quicktime "pro". The software is already there. The 30 dollars buys you a license and unlocks the pro features. Is it worth it? I'd say so, but you must decide for yourself. Luckily, a license is good for quite some time.

Welcome to the world of Mac.
 
Wait now, if you have MP4 files that aren't playing in QT/Win, it's possible that what's going on is that they use the MPEG4 architecture but they're using a weird codec. Between the native QT7 codecs, the Perian ones, and Flip4Mac, you are mostly covered. But.... Really, MP4 files should be either encoded with MPEG-4 video or H.264 (preferred) video. That's what iTunes / iPod / :apple:tv are expecting, at least.
 
mkrishnan said:
Wait now, if you have MP4 files that aren't playing in QT/Win, it's possible that what's going on is that they use the MPEG4 architecture but they're using a weird codec.
Click to expand...

One problem I'm starting to run into is h.264 files that use High Profile instead of Main or Baseline. That's a totally legit h.264 encoding, but for some reason, QuickTime currently can't support it.

Thankfully, Perian (at least the nightly builds for sure) can.
 
help

Hi,
I m trying to watch a .mp4 format movie with subtitles with .sub format.

i ve tried mplayer, vlc, divxplayer, quicktime..

help me please
 
Woodcrest64 said:
You guys are great. I always get help here.
Click to expand...

In fact, IMO, that's the best thing about switching: the community. Very large, full of people who are willing to help with anything.

I'm sure that Apple would draw attention to it in their ads, but they can't make MR seem official, or customers could be misled in to thinking the rumours posted here are actual product announcements.
 
Woodcrest64 said:
Just wondering if you can play MP4 video files on OSX without having to install or buy anything. I've had such a pain with my windows machine in trying to find codecs to play these files. Gah!

Just wondering if the Mac is also easier on this end too. I can't wait till Leopard because I'm jumping off this windows ship asap.
Click to expand...

Sure you can. Apple invented MP4. Didn't you know that?
 
how about MP4 in iMovie 6.0.3

i just imported several .MP4 video clips into iMovie and the screen is just WHITE, no preview first frame, nothing, and remains WHITE when i play them within iMovie (there is sound though) BUT i can see them using QT - i had to install "perian.component" to see them
what do i need to do to see them within iMovie ?
 
Just to clear a few things up 🙂

.mp4 (and .m4v, .avi, .mov etc.) is what is known in the video world as a container. It's a bit confusing to get your head around but it basically contains the audio and video which use specific codecs.

The codecs are the important bit (and what some people confuse with the file itself). You see, the containers above can contain different codecs, such as:

H.264 for video and AAC for audio in .mp4, .m4v & .mov
MPEG-4 for video and AAC for audio in .mp4, .m4v & .mov
DivX for video and MP3 for audio in .avi

Those are just some examples.

What this means is that even though you have a .mp4 file, if iTunes or Quicktime doesn't support the codec (in the OP's case it sounds like Quicktime supports the audio codec but not video) it won't play it.

Apple didn't invent MPEG-4, .mp4 or whatever. MPEG-4 is a pretty wide-ranging set of standards created and utilised by many companies. AAC is the same as well. All Apple have done is just heavily backed these new standards in audio and video (which makes sense, they are the best around).

iMovie is a bit of a pain with regards to codecs. I've found the easiest option is to convert them using Quicktime Pro...
 
MP4 in iMovie

well... for the video newbies this is more confusing... but thanks a lot for your information it opens up more questions.. so QT pro can convert/handle a wide variety of MP4 containers than iMovie ?
 
Diaresi said:
The codecs are the important bit (and what some people confuse with the file itself). You see, the containers above can contain different codecs, such as:

H.264 for video and AAC for audio in .mp4, .m4v & .mov
MPEG-4 for video and AAC for audio in .mp4, .m4v & .mov
DivX for video and MP3 for audio in .avi

Those are just some examples.

What this means is that even though you have a .mp4 file, if iTunes or Quicktime doesn't support the codec (in the OP's case it sounds like Quicktime supports the audio codec but not video) it won't play it.

Apple didn't invent MPEG-4, .mp4 or whatever. MPEG-4 is a pretty wide-ranging set of standards created and utilised by many companies. AAC is the same as well. All Apple have done is just heavily backed these new standards in audio and video (which makes sense, they are the best around).
Click to expand...

Well dude, if you want to get technical about it, DivX and H.264 use/are the MPEG-4 standard, Part 2 and Part 10, respectively. The container can be just about anything mash up of audio and video codecs and half the videos floating around the net are labelled wrong.

Oh, Apple invented AAC, too. Why do you think it's called Apple Audio Codec?
 
jackerin said:
You should be careful with sarcasm, some uninformed person might take it as truth.
Click to expand...

He sounded pretty serious... 😱

mac-I-bear said:
well... for the video newbies this is more confusing... but thanks a lot for your information it opens up more questions.. so QT pro can convert/handle a wide variety of MP4 containers than iMovie ?
Click to expand...

For whatever reason (I don't pretend to know if it would limit some of the features in iMovie etc.) iMovie has a defined set of input codecs. Quicktime Pro though will convert anything it can play - which is limitless thanks to the ability to add Quicktime components like Perian to it.

While I haven't used it for this purpose, Handbrake is free and has recently added the ability to convert movie files so that might be worth a try.
 
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