How can I get a .MOV video to open?

Question

A friend of mine has send me a 15-second-long .MOV video file, but I can't open it in QuickTime 10 or QuickTime 7. VLC, Perian, Flip4Mac, and RealPlayer are all duds. The video codecs are H.264 and Linear PCM. I have QuickTime Player 7 in addition to the latest version of QuickTime Player 10. When I try to open the file, QuickTime 10 says "QuickTime Player can't open "MVI_9730.MOV". To see if additional software is available that will enable QuickTime Player to open the movie, click Tell Me More." I clicked that, but it only told me that QuickTime 7 might work. So, I opened it in QuickTime 7, and the application just freezes while saying "Searching for movie data in file "MVI_9730.MOV".". I had to force quit the application because it stopped responding. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

The file, according to the Finder info window, is about 71 kb in size. The resolution is 1280x720, and, as I previously stated, the video is 15 seconds in length, so the size is somewhat unbelievable. As you say, it sounds like it could be a reference file. How can I tell her to get to the original file? Did she maybe pull it from her camera wrongly? Could she have maybe gotten it out of iPhoto or some other photo library program incorrectly? I'll ask her about the system she's on and what software she's using, maybe that would help with your diagnosis of this could-be "reference file".
The reason I asked for the combined total data rate was to calculate the "expected" reasonable size of the 15 second file and compare that to the actual size of the file according to the Finder. This will normally confirm whether or not the files is a "reference" file even when th file resource references cannot be accessed in the "Inspector" or "Properties" window. As to how a "reference" file could have been created, there are several possibilities. QT 7 Pro or the MakeReference application can used to deliberately create "reference" files. Editing apps (especially those used on IOS devices) frequently do their editing using reference files to conserve storage space on such devices.
Edit: Also, the audio data rate is impossible to find from the QuickTime 7 info window. When I try opening the file in QT7, the program says "Searching for movie data in file "MVI_9730.MOV"." However, as a development, the program finally began responding and asked me to search for the file, but I wasn't allowed to link it to the original video, so it said something about how it was missing "required data" to play the video file. Simply put, the file won't open in QT7. In QT10, access to the file is limited, because when I click "OK", the file closes, leaving the program blank and idle with nothing open.
This is where a media information utility app really comes in handy. For instance, another user had a similar problem recently. In his case the video files were recorded on an iPhone 4 and edited with an app called ProCamera 3.5.5 which created reference files. While the reference files would not open in QT 7, the MediaInfo app was able to provide the following information:
And, based on this information, it was relatively easy to calculate that the 25 KB reference file was supposed to be resourced to a standalone file on the order of 3,000 times the size of the reference file. Further, the reference file contained the name of the editing application that actually created the reference file. As to the delay in opening your reference file in QT 7, that was due to an automatic attempt by the media player to search your system for the missing standalone file and, when it could not be found, wanted you to locate the file manually if still available elsewhere.