Working with video files on a USB drive

[Murphster05]

Hello all, new here but I don't think I am violating by asking this question. I have a USB drive which has a at home video course on it, I am attempting to move the files from the drive to my computer, but if I attempt to play them in quicktime (the default) I get sound and no video, I have attempted to use other players, as well as updated codecs, but no success. There is a program on the drive which plays and accesses the videos, but I am trying to access them without the drive. The files are .mov, and are pretty big, each being about 484 megs... Any thoughts?

Thanks for any help!

[Baldrick]

What is the video codec in the mov? (Use mediainfo to identify the codec in your mov)

And have you tried play with vlc and smplayer? they have builtin decoders for most formats.

[Murphster05]

Thanks for the reply. I downloaded both players, VLC did audio with no video, SM loaded a green screen for a split second then stopped completely. I believe the codec is Sorenson 3, but on the sheet view it says codec ID "qt"?

[Murphster05]

anyone have any ideas on this?

[edDV]

There may be some DRM protection issues.

[poisondeathray]

Yes, it's rare, but QT can have copy protection. There is an old thread on this if you search

A current workaround for some forms of .mov protection is to re-mux the streams into .mkv container using mkvtoolnix. The file then should be able to be manipulated however you see fit.

[Murphster05]

Thanks for the feedback. Excuse my ignorance but I don't understand the terms DRM and QT mean? Is this something I shouldn't be doing or...?

[Murphster05]

Downloaded and did a re-mux with mkvtoolnix, attempted to play the mkv file in VLC player, sound, no video. I may just not be able to do this with my skill level at all of this stuff... Still though, I appreciate the help!

[Ai Haibara]

DRM: Digital Rights Management. It's what content providers use to protect their video, to ensure you can only view it with a valid license, only in a certain player or specific system, etc. Basically, it may scramble the video and audio, preventing you from simply converting it to any other format. Did you have to have or buy a license to view the original video?

QT: Quicktime.

Follow Baldrick's suggestion to use MediaInfo to get more information on the video (use Tree View), then post that information here.

[tomlee59]

You mentioned in your original post that there is a program on the USB stick that plays the vids. Have you tried copying that over to your computer and continuing to use that program to watch the vids? It does sound as if there's something proprietary about how the vids were prepared, and that they supplied their own player for a reason.

[Murphster05]

Yes, there was a license to buy, I am not trying to copy the files, just trying to use them without the USB drive as it takes up two ports and is a pain to carry around with me. I haven't tried moving the program over, maybe that is worth a shot also.

Here is the info from tree view:

General
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : QuickTime
Codec ID : qt
File size : 474 MiB
Duration : 58mn 42s
Overall bit rate : 1 128 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2009-06-11 22:27:23
Tagged date : UTC 2009-06-11 22:29:51
Writing library : Apple QuickTime
com.apple.quicktime.software : Sorenson Squeeze 5.0

Video
ID : 2
Format : Sorenson 3
Codec ID : SVQ3
Codec ID/Info : Sorenson Media Video 3 (Apple QuickTime 5)
Duration : 58mn 42s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 996 Kbps
Width : 640 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4/3
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.108
Stream size : 418 MiB (88%)
Encoded date : UTC 2009-06-11 20:09:15
Tagged date : UTC 2009-06-11 22:29:51

Audio
ID : 1
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format version : Version 4
Format profile : LC
Format settings, SBR : No
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 58mn 42s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : L R
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
Stream size : 53.7 MiB (11%)
Encoded date : UTC 2009-06-11 20:09:15
Tagged date : UTC 2009-06-11 22:29:51


Thanks!

[poisondeathray]

Try moving the files over to your system HD , try another player like KMPlayer , or try MPC + quicktime alternative

[Murphster05]

Tried the other players, the file that I am working with is already on my hard drive so I am just trying to find a way to play it at this point, going to do some more looking at moving the program over...

[Ai Haibara]

If you did have to buy a license to view the content in the videos, it could be that the player that came with it is going to be the only thing that will let you view those videos properly. As they're apparently DRM-encoded (though I don't recall hearing much about DRM measures in Quicktime files - most providers who want to protect their video/audio with DRM seem to want to use Windows Media, instead ), chances are none of the other players and converters will be able to handle them properly.

A USB drive that takes up two ports?

One thing you can try, if you've got a decent enough system and you can play the videos in the original player, is to use a video capture program (some examples are CamStudio, FRAPS, and others can be found in VideoHelp's Tools section) while the videos are playing, and save the result to a new video file.