Re: Movie Corruption Issue

Posted by Urs Utzinger on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/Movie-Corruption-Issue-tp591691p591719.html

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It you want to consider a different format,

it seems as x264 (H264) and XviD are one of the best freely available
encoders for movie type data. You can use different containers MP4, AVI, MPG
using the same encoder.
You can check Wikipedia for codecs and  follow the many links.
I found MediaCoder very useful for re-encoding. This program seems to
partially work with WINE on OSX so it probably is not the best choice for OS
X. If you use double or triple pass very little contrast is lost due to
compression, however these codecs have primarily applications in encoding
movies and as jpeg will use compression resulting in data quality reduction.

Maybe others can comment on best "scientific" approach for video encoding.

You might also want to check on windows computers and most likely they use a
different decoder and it could be that your movies are played correctly.
Beside quick time, there is also "windows media player classic" which should
be able to play quick time movies.

Once you are sure data is not corrupted, you can consider re-encoding or
purchasing different media player software or getting a different codec.

It's unlikely your data is corrupted but that your player does not
render/decompress the video correctly.

Urs Utzinger
University of Arizona

-----Original Message-----
From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[hidden email]] On
Behalf Of Ann Haberman
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 2:20 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: Movie Corruption Issue

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Dear Steve,

This often happens in current QuickTime versions when the movie file
size is large. The movies will seemingly stutter - start to play for
a few frames and then stop. Especially if they were originally
created with Apple animation. This will not happen with smaller
files. Is there a way that you can compress before you open them with
QuickTime?

best,
Ann

>Search the CONFOCAL archive at
>http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>
>This is not technically a microscopy question, but I'm desperate:
>
>I use a mac. I have hundreds, if not thousands, of videos exported into
.mpg

>and .mov formats over many years of imaging.
>
>Of late, I have noticed that _many_ of my older .mov files are seriously
>corrupted on the Mac. It's not the data. Archived movies are the same. It's
>the player- Quicktime. It no longer can play the old movies. However, 2-3
>years ago, before this problem was widespread, we exported several .mov
>files to .avi. These .avi movies (fortunately) play just fine. However,
>attempt to export the corrupted .mov files now yield .avi files that look
>just like the .mov files- that is to say, they look like garbage.
>
>I have attempted to revert to older versions of quicktime- all the way to
>v7.3. No luck. They're still corrupted.
>
>The corruption is not a computer issue. The same movies are corrupted on
>many others Macs with current system installations.
>
>As you might expect, this makes for less than stellar presentations, when
>half of your movies crash.
>
>Oddly, some movies exported on the same day, using the same software, will
>play, and others will not.
>
>Has anyone else encountered this problem on the Mac? Any thoughts?
>
>     --Steve
>
>
>
>***************************************************************************

*

>Stephen C. Bunnell, Ph.D.
>Assistant Professor
>Tufts University Medical School
>Department of Pathology
>Jaharis Bldg., Room 512
>150 Harrison Ave.
>Boston, MA 02111
>
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>
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--

Ann Haberman, PhD
Department of Laboratory Medicine
Yale University School of Medicine
1 Gilbert  St.
TAC S541
New Haven, CT 06510

203-785-7349
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[hidden email]