Playing VCD

[theBB]

Can I use any of the applications that come pre-loaded with a Mac to play a VCD? If not, what is a good opensource option. VLC?

 

[mad jew]

Yeah, I find VLC the best app for playing all sorts of different file formats. 🙂

 

[theBB]

Yeah, I find VLC the best app for playing all sorts of different file formats. 🙂

Well, I actually downloaded VLC's intel binary version. It worked well with mpeg2 and 4's, but crashed when I tried to play a VCD. Then I tried my luck with PPC VLC under rosetta, but a similar crash brought that to a halt as well.

I tried to copy .DAT file to my desktop and change the extension to .mpg, but Quicktime did not like it. Strange, it does not complain about the original mpg file that I created the VCD from.

As a side note, VLC under rosetta plays it once it is copied over and called a .mpg .

 

[mad jew]

How bizarre. I wonder if MPlayer would be more cooperative. It won the Readers' Choice Award of the Hungarian Unix Portal in the "favorite video player of the year" category for the third time in a row. You read it here first. 😛

 

[theBB]

How bizarre. I wonder if MPlayer would be more cooperative. It won the Readers' Choice Award of the Hungarian Unix Portal in the "favorite video player of the year" category for the third time in a row. You read it here first. 😛

🙂

Well, I looked into MPlayerOSX, but from user feedback it seems like it causes audio settings to go haywire so that other apps cannot play any audio until you correct them manually. I've read such issues on macosxhints discussions as well, so I decided not to take that chance.

Actually, I don't mind VLC to be choking. It is either translated or not even beta state. However, Quicktime not playing when turned into .mpg file bothers me. I expect more from Apple.

 

[mad jew]

Well, I looked into MPlayerOSX, but from user feedback it seems like it causes audio settings to go haywire so that other apps cannot play any audio until you correct them manually. I've read such issues on macosxhints discussions as well, so I decided not to take that chance.

That's not really MPlayer's fault. It can be remedied quite easily by either opening and then closing Garageband or changing on of the settings in Audio MIDI Setup.

Actually, I don't mind VLC to be choking. It is either translated or not even beta state. However, Quicktime not playing when turned into .mpg file bothers me. I expect more from Apple.

Agreed. Along with .Mac, I think QuickTime is one of Apple's biggest let downs. 🙁

 

[theBB]

That's not really MPlayer's fault. It can be remedied quite easily by either opening and then closing Garageband or changing on of the settings in Audio MIDI Setup.

??? If no other app is causing such issues, then it is mplayer's fault. Requiring the user to adjust systemwide audio settings after each use is not a sign of a smooth program.

In any case, I am reevaluating a purchase of QT Pro and instead thinking about waiting for intel binaries of ffmpegX, VLC and flip4mac. QT is not inspiring confidence in me right now. VLC under rosetta is already providing more functionality than QT. Sad, a volunteer based project vs. Apple... (I probably need flip4mac if I want to edit my mpeg4 movies through iMovie. I suspect my camera is using one of microsoft's proprietary mpeg4 codecs.)

 

[mad jew]

??? If no other app is causing such issues, then it is mplayer's fault. Requiring the user to adjust systemwide audio settings after each use is not a sign of a smooth program.

Very true but to be fair other apps are having the same effect. It's an OSX bug that first popped up in Panther but has resurfaced in 10.4.2 and is yet to go away. It's happened to me and I don't even have MPlayer installed.

 

[theBB]

Very true but to be fair other apps are having the same effect. It's an OSX bug that first popped up in Panther but has resurfaced in 10.4.2 and is yet to go away. It's happened to me and I don't even have MPlayer installed.

Uh, sorry, I was under the impression that this was specific to mplayer.