How can I convert a .mov file that has been tampered with?

[ktconverter]

Hello,

I purchased some lecture videos on a flash drive to assist me in studying for an upcoming exam.

I would like to be able to watch them on a linux operating system which is on my netbook.

I think that the .mov files may have been tampered with to force one to watch it with their included executable, which is a Macromedia Projector .exe file. This program also requires me to use Quicktime. Neither the format of the video nor the executible are compatible with the OS I would like to watch them with.

When I try to open the .mov files directly with another player, the video does not show, but I hear audio. The file format of the videos are format: Sorenson Video 3, 1264 x 843, millions AAc, Stereo, 44.100 Khz.

When I try to convert the files using a video converter, the converter gives an error message.

Is it possible that these .mov files have been encrypted or locked? How can I get around this so I can convert them to a format that i can use? Does anyone have any idea how I can go about doing this? Or give direction? I have been googling to no avail

Thanks in Advance, kt

[aedipuss]

probably the only way to get them into a different format is to play them and capture them with a screen recording utility. if they are just lectures it shouldn't degrade the quality much.

[poisondeathray]

Usually the exe file is just a front end that provides navigation , menus that sort of thing. You might be able to watch the files without it

However, some quicktime .mov do have encryption, it's possible yours does too

Remuxing some quicktime files that used older forms of protection with mkvtoolnix, removed the encyrption on those files, but this doesn't work on newer encyrption. Sorensen 3 is very old format which suggests your files are old, so it might work for your files



Also, on linux, what players have you tried?

Try mplayer or some derivative of mplayer like smplayer (they include codecs /decoders internally)



For the converting route (this is least favorable approach), what converter did you use, and what was the error message?

[ktconverter]

Hello,

Well, I have used different players and converters. Actually my boyfriend helped me with this. Well, it seems that we have tried many different converters and many different players, um, including media player classic with all the codecs on Windows. Oh yeah, these videos will not play on the apple player either. Even trying to open it with the video encoding program by the creators of the SVQ3 codec, Sorenson, did not work. The video is always black.

We tried the suggestions in this thread as well (including mplayer on Linux), which did not seem to work. When trying to convert, it usually would get to a point and say there was an error (I think it said that a certain block of memory was corrupt? And it would change which part was corrupt when trying it again). In using the (Ogg I think?) converter, it would not even begin to convert it, and said it was unreadable. We also tried importing it into video editing software, which has worked before for me for messed up videos, but it did not work here either.

We are thinking the only option is to either use some sort of screen capture program which will record an application's video and computer sound (any suggestions?), or to just give up and use some sort of virtual windows program to view it.

I appreciate all the help. I am not entirely sure the names of all the different converters we used but I am pretty sure we used up most of the options out there. I can try to find out more details if you would really like to know.

[aedipuss]

got ourselves a commercial spammer here. every post advertises a paid program.

[ktconverter]

Just as an update. We found 2 solutions. 1. Download and install a virtual copy of windows. Um, haven't gotten it working quite yet, but what it is is a saved state of windows where if you shut down the virtual computer the operating system is totally gone. You can share a folder somehow and then run the videos through there.

2. the Easier and less-resources-using-way is to install Wine, it is a way to run windows programs on Linux (I am using Ubuntu) and then you can install the codec program & video player into Wine's directory it creates and play the video that way. I haven't quite followed through getting this to work either. I just relented and am watching the videos on my regular windows computer now, even though it would be nice to use it on the super portable machine. I just don't have the time. May get around to it soon.

Sorry not quite video related but just in case someone else has this same problem, this is what we did.