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  • QT Can't Find Audio after FTP'ing

    I posted this at Apple. Perhaps some of the VSL readers might have experienced the following.

    I'm writing music cues for QT movies, then sending them to my client's FTP site. The cues are composed (in Logic 7.1) and composited (in QuickTime) on a Mac. When I upload and then download them from the FTP site on a Mac, they play as sent.

    When I copy the QT files to my PC using a jump drive, they play.

    But, once posted to the FTP site, when my client and I download these same files on a PC, we get an error message that says that the QT file needs the audio file to playback properly.

    To secure correct playback, I must download a free-standing MP3 audio file with the same name, so that the original QT file can use it as a resource.

    But I sent the movie as a self-contained file (audio and video) in the first place, and "Show Movie Properties" confirms that the audio is there in the downloaded movie.

    It's an issue because my client only has a PC, and I don't want the company to go chasing around for associated files. Somehow, this FTP-ing stops the embedded audio from being seen by the file.

    Any ideas why a movie reporting an audio and video track together can't be played by itself after it's downloaded to a PC? Again, the audio is added and all is saved as a self-contained movie on a Mac, then FTP'd on a PC.

    I don't know my client's QT version numbers. I'm building the files with QuickTime Pro 7.0, and the same thing has happened with 7.0.3, I think.

  • Did you use ZIP or StuffIt? It's always a good idea too send compressed archives, not the plain files.

    /Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library
  • Hmm. I didn't use either. As the clips were reasonably short, that never occured to me.

    Has anyone else had this experience?

  • Apple software on a PC is always terrible...

    I'm not a Windows/Microsoft fan, but I find all Apple software for PC really incredibly bad.

    Can't you find another format that is better supported on both platforms?

    MPG2 for instance?

    Can Macs playback Windows Media (WMF) files?

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    @Another User said:

    when my client and I download these same files on a PC, we get an error message that says that the QT file needs the audio file to playback properly.
    to be more precise: you don't get the errormessage when downloading, but when trying to play - where, in QT?

    you have to know (and this applies to both worlds) that media players don't have neccessarily all codecs installed, which audio- and video-stuff might need (standard quicktime doesn't even have mpeg2).

    your application might simply use a codec your client (and your PC)doesn't have - try to find out which codecs both have in common and use this one when rendering tracks (again: applies to audio and video in the same manner)

    i'm pretty sure the errormessage doesn't say *audio is missing* but *codec is missing* or a similar wording
    hth, christian

    and remember: only a CRAY can run an endless loop in just three seconds.
  • Quicktime Pro 7 is really bad on PC. Try to avoid it if you can. At least the earlier versions work.

    D

  • Very interesting, all around.

    "Can Macs playback Windows Media (WMF) files?" You may mean WMV files, and I'm sure Apple can play them. Surprisingly, my current version of QT Pro does not export to WMV, and that's the only video editing program I know.

    But many thanks for the new format suggestion. It didn't even occur to me. On Mac within QT, I exported a .mov file to .avi, uploaded, then downloaded, and it did play on a PC.

    Christian, the prompt came only after I tried to launch the downloaded .mov file from the desktop. "Codec" was not in the prompt. A general paraphrase was "Output 1-2.mp3 could not be found. QuickTime needs that file to play properly."

    I ran "Show Movie Properties," and the mp3 file was there. So audio and video uploaded and downloaded. But somehow after the download, the .mov file's connection to its own audio file gets broken. It could indeed be a codec in the end, even if it wasn't mentioned in the error message.

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    QT can play .wmv- and .wma-files with a plugin (i forgot and can't currently find the source of it, more easy would be to use the mediaplayer for mac) and there is a type of quicktime files which use *pointers* to other files (or file-streams within a file) which not every version on every platform might *understand* properly.

    please note, that wmv (or wma), avi, quicktime, ect are just *containers* - what is inside the container is *the real thing* and encoded with various methods (mpeg1, mpeg2, mpeg3, mpeg4, sorenson, DV, cinepack, diffX, windows media, endless list ... many of them in various versions)

    i personally don't have issues with QT on PC here, but i've installed the latest standalone-version, a formely installed *iTunes-combi setup created too much strange problems - find it here and select the second option.

    the only thing i don't get right with QTpro is to keep the aspect ratio for a true 16:9 source in PAL - either it produces black bars or the result is a distorted 4:3 format, but this applies to both platforms and probably my incompetence ...
    christian

    and remember: only a CRAY can run an endless loop in just three seconds.
  • make sure that the .aif or whatever is present before you upload it to the FTP server. i have found that the files get mangled during transfers. for PT files (.sd2) i usually put them in a folder then zip them or stuff them without compression to give them a protective wrapper.

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    @cm said:

    QT can play .wmv- and .wma-files with a plugin (i forgot and can't currently find the source of it, more easy would be to use the mediaplayer for mac) and there is a type of quicktime files which use *pointers* to other files (or file-streams within a file) which not every version on every platform might *understand* properly.


    Christian,

    The WMV plug-in for QuickTime is called Flip4Mac.


    Mark