QuickTime cannot open film sent by email

Question

What do you think of this: I have here a QT movie, which was created with the Grapher utility under Mac OS 10.4.8. I tried sending it to a friend by email, but he couldn't open it and sent it back to me for checking. I couldn't open it either ("Error opening file"), although it seems to be bit-by-bit identical to the original file.
I did some more tests:
$ open original.mov
(opens film in QuickTime)
$ cp original.mov copy1.mov
$ diff original.mov copy1.mov
$ open copy1.mov
(opens film in QuickTime)
$ cat original.mov > copy2.mov
$ diff original.mov copy2.mov
$ open copy2.mov
(error message appears)
What's happening?
mini G4   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

Answer 1

Anyway, is there an (unexpensive) way to recode the film in a different codec? iMovie won't do as the movie has custom dimensions.
Since you say the original opens/plays in QT Player, would suggest you try opening it in MPEG Streamclip (free). It has features similar to QT Pro (compression formats and custom dimensions among others) but without having to purchase the registration. It also would save you the trouble of drop/import converting to DV codec (with fixed dimensions) in iMovie which I assume is what you are referring to by your "iMovie won't do" comment. (BTW: iMovie projects can be exported at your original custom screen size but you still have to convert twice whereas with MPEG Streamclip, ffmpeg, QT Pro, or other dedicated converter applications you can transcode directly between supported QT compression formats.)
EDITED: Oops! A bit slow in responding. Sorry.