Quicktime Pro - Slow conversion

I have a Macbook 2.0ghz Core Duo/2GB 667mhz Ram/160GB HDD. Whenever Im converting videos on Quicktime Pro, the process is slow, as everyone already knows. My question is, will getting a Mac Pro with Quad or Octo 2.8 ghz and Possibly more than 2gb of ram, make a HUGE difference in conversion speed? Will it make a difference at all? Thanks!

I know it'll make a difference as far as increased processor speed is concerned AND for compressing multiple videos at once. Beyond that, there's certain parts of H.264 encoding that aren't multi-threaded, so you may not for example, see an 8 times speed increase.
RE: encoding speed, some other tools actually encode faster than QuickTime. Try ffmpegx or VisualHub, iSquint.

Similar Messages

Help with Automator Script for QuickTime Pro Movie Conversion from Vado

All my videos from my Creative Vado do not show up in iMovie 09 initially on import. By trial and error, I have discovered that the old version of QuickTime Pro 7 ($29.95) will convert them to .mov files that can be seen by iMovie 09 once the converted videos are imported back into iPhoto.
I am (very) new to mac things, and it looks like in theory I could use Automator to handle to conversion process, and perhaps even the re-import into iPhoto. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to go about this? Where would be a good site to post this as a project that I could pay some one to help me, provide an automator script/workflow?
Are any other solutions available? Buy Final Cut etc?
PS (Rant): One of the reasons I bought a MacBook Pro and iLife was to take advantage of what I thought was supposed to be Apple's superior multimedia handling. It seems ludicrous to me that with a MacBook Pro running the latest software (10.6.4), and using the latest versions of iLife, I'd have to buy an old version of QuickTime to convert my videos so that I could manipulate them in iMovie. Sigh.

MPeg Stram clip will export files which are compatible with iMovie '09. It (iMovie )can import the following.
DV
AIC
Motion-JPEG
Photo-JPEG
MPEG-4 (Supported profiles)
H.264 (Supported profiles)
Apple Animation (Movie '09 only)
Apple Video (iMovie '09 only)
iMovie '08/'09 will not accept files containing extraneous data tracks such as:
'Tween
Text
Chapter
Closed Caption
Secondary audio such as AC3
etc.
iMovie '08/'09 Will not accept files that rely on proprietary/third-party components such as
DivX
WMV
XviD
etc.

QuickTime Pro Video Conversion

I know i just posted about video capture, but i also have a question about how to convert video types to a different type. Please again let me know if i wasted my money.

QuickTime Pro does not export to MPEG-1. But it can view them.
I guess that you mean WMP (Windows Media Player) formats and the Windows version of QuickTime Player doesn't open those formats. The Mac version uses third party software (Flip4Mac) that allows some WMP formats be viewed inside QuickTime Player.
Why do you want to convert to MPEG-1? What is the goal of this conversion?
Toast from Roxio can create MPEG-1 files from numerous video formats.

INSANELY SUPER SLOW conversion times for MP4 to Quicktime Movie..HELP!!!!!!

Hi folks...
I am frustrated.
I am a student in a Film Editing class.
I have an assignment where I have to take a classic film and create a movie trailer for it using the original film and editing in FinalCut Pro.
I started off by using Handbrake to change the original DVD of the film into an MPEG-4. This took about 3 hours, which was long....but Handbrake did a very good job and the conversion was completed.
So, I have a high quality MPEG-4 of the movie.
However, as many people know, you cannot import an MPEG-4 file into FinalCut.
You have to first convert the MPEG-4 to a Quicktime Movie (a.k.a. "mov file")
HERE IS WHERE THE PROBLEM HAS STARTED
I have been trying for almost two weeks to convert one movie- the 1979 movie "Alien"- over from MPEG-4 to Quicktime.mov, as I keep running into problems.
Right now, at home, my computer (a PowerMac G4) is converting the file using MPEG Streamclips...
At the current rate it is going (I timed it and used a calculator)...it will take approximately 80 HOURS (!!!!) for MPEG Streamclips to convert this film from MPEG-4 to Quicktime MOV.
I literally started the conversion at 8 o clock last night. I went to sleep. This morning I was getting ready to go to my job. The file was still only 10% COMPLETE...(THIS IS INSANE)...
I got upset with this, as my professor in the editing class says he may dock me points for a late assignment.
So, I PURCHASED Quicktime Pro for Windows.
I have downloaded it onto this PC I am using.
In almost 2 hours, it has only gone from "8% completed" to "9% completed"... there is no way this will be done in any less than 48 hours. NOTE- I am not using a 3rd party, free, unpredictable sortware...I am using the official Quicktime 7 PRO that I bought straight from APPLE....and it is THIS SLOW.
This is absolutely crazy. IS THIS NORMAL? People running their computers 24 hours a day for 3 to 4 DAYS to convert a film from MPEG-4 to Quicktime Movie?
What can I possibly do to make this go faster? I was afraid I was going to crash this PC (the fan has been running loudly on high non-stop since I started this...I know this will take more than 8 hours at this rate, so I shut it off)
What are tips/shortcuts that anyone can give to help with this.
I dont think I should have to go to the United States Government to the Pentagon (or to Steve Jobs's house!) to get a computer with enough RAM and computing power to change an MP4 to a Quicktime movie.
I have even used the newest and most powerful G5 computers here at the university, running OS 10.5 with Quicktime Pro as the converter....and still seen extremely slow conversions (as in, it will take 48 hours of continuous computing to complete this)
Is this normal? Does everyone actually do this when they need to convert a film?
Or, are there shortcuts, slight drops in quality, or special shortcuts I can take?? What do KNOWEDGEABLE people do to convert an MPEG-4 file to a Quicktime Movie?
3-4 hours is long, but reasonable.... 80 HOURS IS INSANE......
.....Please HELP out a struggling film student!!! Thanks and God Bless
Message was edited by: JonCapogrossi
Message was edited by: JonCapogrossi

I restarted the conversion, only this time I am seeking to convert the MEPG-4 over to "Apple DV/DVC PRO- NTSC format"
An instructor here at the school gave that as a suggestion...
Now, at the current rate of THIS conversion, it will STILL TAKE about 40 hours of continuous processing to convert this film. THe computer will need to run 24 hours a day for almost 2 days to convert this.
The instructor told me he thinks the ludicrous time frames needed have something to do with the fact that I am converting this film from MPEG-4. He thinks that this could be what is causing it to be this slow.
I am just not used to this type of thing....I have never used a computer to do ANYTHING that takes 40 to 80 hours to complete.
I think that director Ridley Scott likely filmed the actual movie itself much faster than this conversion is taking (!!!)

Quicktime Pro Really Slow to Load Movies

Hi,
Anyone have any idea why after getting Quicktime pro it is so slow to load movies? I have an iMac with 2Gigs of Ram, less than a year old...
I read about the disk permissions thing, but it doesn't seem to have helped...
Thanks in advance!

I don't know if this is still a problem for you, but I first noticed it when I upgraded to 7.2 in Tiger.
It seems that QT is loading the whole movie into RAM before it starts playing. This is really annoying with long movies, the beachball just spins until QT has loaded all 350 megs into a buffer somewhere. I've started using VLC instead. No settings that I can find will alter this behaviour, and I've tried moving various third-party plug-ins around to no avail.
Note: the behaviour persists with QT 7.3 in Tiger (10.4.10) but seems to have been fixed in Leopard (10.5). Since I'm slowly migrating to Leopard, I guess the problem is semi-solved.

File Conversions in Quicktime Pro

can quicktime pro convert flv files to movie files that i can play on my ipod? ex. i want to take youtube videos and convert the files so they can play on my ipod, if quicktime cant do it is there something that can?
thank you

And to dbsneddon. The quality of sync in FLV is truly horrible. MPEG Streamclip will make equally out of sync FLV to QT movies as QT will, even Elgato Turbo.264 (which uses a hardware encoder to H264) will lose sync. If it MUST be in sync you may need to strip the audio out and then place it back in sync using QT Pro (and hope the opverall timing is OK and it is just out of sync from the beginning).
I do not think that sync was a huge part of the spec when whoever built it got to work. You may notice that the FLV original loses sync but teh conversion really makes it a lot worse.

Quicktime Pro Playback is Slow

I have the latest version of quicktime pro, v7.5.
When I playback any size .mov, it plays at less than 30 frames per second. It looks like 12 frames per second. This is a new problem with files that once played back perfectly.
Can anyone tell me what's wrong?
Thanks

I got the same thing. I think it's just h.264 files. About 2 moths ago they played fine on my system (1.6Ghz G5 PowerMac 1.5GRam). But now they play terribly. Divx and avi files play in Quicktime fine.
Playing a 720p h.264 file in Quicktime used to play fine (~24fps) but now its slow...
Yet the same file plays in Divx player just fine. And also the same file played in front row plays fine too.
I don't remember when this strange behavior started. I was running 10.4.11 before and i tried updating to Leopard to see if that would fix it. It didn't. Even with the updates to 10.5.4, nothing.
So i can only point the finger at Quicktime and h.264 files???

QuickTime Pro solution for my iPod conversions?

Hi!
I am looking for an application to convert video to iPod-readable format. 3 questions:
1. Would QuickTime Pro (QT Pro) be a solution for my needs?
2. What can QT Pro convert?
3. What QT pro cannot convert?
Thks.

Don't know about iPod. Still haven't got one. Can ya believe it!
As far as your import/export question...http://www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/specs.html
iMac G4 FCP4/FCE2.0.3 QTPro 7.0.3 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Video conversion using Quicktime Pro (Which Export Settings?)

I tried converting videos (.avi) to .m4v so that I can play them on my iPod Touch. However I am having problems.
iPod Touch documentation says that the following video file formats are supported by iPod touch:
A H.264 (Baseline Profile Level 3.0)
B MPEG-4 (Simple Profile)
My question is:
1. Can anyone show me how can i covert to those format using Quicktime Pro? And please do let me know which exact EXPORT setting I am supposed to use. I used EXPORT> Movie to iPod . It did not seem to work.
Thanks in Advance.

I use it on a 24" iMac C2D running at 2.33GHz with 3GB of RAM, and it's much quicker than a regular QT export and a bit quicker than VisualHub. I won't quote a time to encode a "2 hour movie" because there's a lot more factors involved like resolution and original file encoding but the device is faster than using the twin cores.
No, it won't work with Handbrake, nor VisualHub for that matter. It acts as a plug-in (albeit hardware) for QT and any application that uses QT for export can utilise the turbo.264.
One other (for me big) advantage is that Elgatos own software for using the turbo.264 supports AppleScript and hence Automator.

Customising import of DV tapes using Quicktime Pro

Hi all,
I am trying to import a lot of DV tapes onto my Mac (and some other analogue stuffe that I route through the camcorder so it ends up in DV even if it originated from VHS), the ultimate aim is to have the videos available within iTunes so I can stream them to my Apple TV 2 after some minimal editing (cutting out bad bits mainly).
I have tried to import via iMovie, but it has the following drawbacks: Huge file sizes, spends ages creating thumbnails, and then is really really slow to encode into H.264 compared to something like Handbrake.
I am not *too* fussed about final image quality, I am more concerned with being able to complete the job without spending too much time. What I want to do is encode into H.264 during the import, and then quickly be able to cut out what I don't want, and save into iTunes. Quicktime Pro is the closest I have found, but it seems to have the following limitations: Very limited selection of encoders and sizes without any ability to customise means I can't choose an appropriate quality level - the best is only 640x480, with no info on bitrates etc. This should be fine for my analogue sources, but potentially no good for some stuff in genuine DV format. Also, there seems to be a limit on how long it will record for, which doesn't make a lot of sense as it's capping out on videos less than 200Mb in size leaving me with extra steps to combine the individual videos into a larger one (References movies are quick to make, but won't stream to the Apple TV 2)
Is there a way to customise these settings to ammend the import settings and increase the maximise size, either unofficially or not?
Many thanks for yout time.

In the interest of ripping this stuff with the least complexity possible I was wanting to use QTP, but it seems that using the "best" preset with a widescreen DV input provides a file that is only 640x360 encoded at 96kbps, which is a lot smaller than the input native and isn't really good enough for me sadly.
The stated data rate looks more like an audio data rate that a video or video + audio data rate. Since the preset must be compatible with both NTSC and PAL "standards," it appears Apple programmers lower, more universal settings for greater device compatibility.
I can select Device Native, but that would get me back into massive DV files again. Not sure if this would be better than using the Vidi Firewire Capture would be better or not than this setting?
The basic rule of thumb here is "you can never have enough hard drive space." I currently have 25 TBs in external hard drive space connected to my main iMac for recreational/non-professional use. And, while you may consider DV data rates/files to be massive, HDV data rates/files would quadruple yours and some Apple Animation data rates/files could easily quadruple the HDV data rates/files. As to the question of using Vidi, if you are going to capture your files as DV content and don't want to use iMovie or other video editor application, then Vidi would be the utility to use.
Either way, at a couple of hours long the timeline within QTP becomes too "small" to be able to select bits to cut with any accuracy as it is not zoomable unlike iMovie, but putting them in iMovie would then start with the old thumbnailing again...
The QT 7 Pro Player "time line" is zoomable to some degree. This "zoom" capability is related to the size of the player. If you expand the size of the player to fill your screen as much as possible, you can "scrub" the playhead in smaller relative increments. Basically you should start your edits by expanding the player as large as your display allows and scrub the playhead to the rough area of your edit and then refine the position of the playhead using the fast play and jog controls in the A/V pallet and finally use the left/right arrow keys to select the exact frame you wish to edit. With some practice, you should find this work flow to be fairly quick if/when you know what and how you wish to edit the file.
As an example, a 1 hour 58 minute 23 second and 15 frame 640x360 file displayed at its default size can scrub the playhead in approximately 15 second increments. If I expand the player to its maximum dimensions on my monitor, the "scrub" increment is reduced to about 4 second with fast play and/or jog able to refine the playhead location to within a few frames of where I want to be.
What I was doing to remove the bits I don't want in iMovie was to create a project, include the bits I want, then delete the events using the option to only remove unused elements. This is a yet further step which takes a long time, but then gives me chunks of files I can queue in handbrake and then stitch back together using QTP.
Most strategies fall into either a "subtractive" or and "additive" work flow. I normally make "rough cuts" in the first pass and place the results in an folder/bin for further refining later. Once I have everything sorted and trimmed, I then merge/join the DV clips to create a single file which is then converted all at once to the target compression format or, in frequent instance, to several different compression formats or variations dependent on target use—burning to DVD, burning to BD, TV viewing, posting to the internet, etc.
I just tried a native capture with QTP, and it gives me the following video settings:
DV, 720 x 576 (1024 x 576), Millions
16-bit Integer (Little Endian), 4.0 (L R _ _), 32.000 kHz
1024 x 576 pixels (Actual)
If I encode this with Handbrake using the Apple Universal I get:
H.264, 720 x 592, Millions
AAC, 2 channels, 32000 Hz
1033 x 592 pixels
I would normally encode the file using the source file standard. In my case that would the NTSC 720x480 (853X480) equivalent of your PAL 720x576 (1024x576) anamorphic DV import. Would also prefer the AAC audio track be encoded using a 48,0 KHz sampling rate at 160 Kbps since my DV audio is set for 16-bit/48.0 KHz. (I also include an DD5.1 passthrough at 448 or 640 Kbps if available.) You can create and save your own custom resets which is what I use for HandBrake conversions specifically targeting the TV2 device and which include additional analysis/motion prediction settings.
So it looks like getting QTP to encode into H.264 just won't do it well enough, even though it should be able to go better without extending beyond the limits of the source
If you are referring to the conversion of DV source files to H.264, then use the "Movie to MPEG-4" or "Movie to Quicktime" export option to enter your own custom target settings. However, nether of these export potions offer the same ease for setting up custom anamorphic encodes for custom dimensions as HandBrake does. (I personally prefer using HandBrake here.)
I think the size limit was CPU bound with it not keeping up with the input fast enough to real-time encode and thus stopping. It's not done it since.
That may well be the case. My old G5 processed files in handBrake at 4 to 6 time "real time." My MacBook Pro converts files in roughly "real time" using my custom HandBrake presets. On my new iMac the default TV2 HandBrake preset process at about 180 fps and at 70-90 fps using an even higher quality custom preset I just added. As you can see, the different CPUs involved cam make quite a difference in conversion speed.

Will QuickTime Pro Edit mp4?

I own the Madonna: The Immaculate Collection on DVD. I have converted the VOB file to mp4, but it is 62 minutes long. Every video is included in the one file. I want to break the videos down individually for my iPod. I don't mind spending the $30 to upgrade my QuickTime to pro it it will allow me to do this. If not, does anybosy know another program ($50 or less) that will? I've also read some user reviews on QuickTime. Are there a lot of bugs/issues with Windows XP? Thanks.
Windows XP

Will QuickTime Pro Edit mp4?
Yes, but it may not be the best solution in all work flows. Converting and then clipping into segments is a viable solution that will save the final product as an .mov file even though the movie is still in its original format. Reversing the work flow, however, and clipping the file into segments first is not very accurate owing to the way in which the sequential blocks of audio and video data are stored in the file.
Every video is included in the one file. I want to break the videos down individually for my iPod. I don't mind spending the $30 to upgrade my QuickTime to pro it it will allow me to do this. If not, does anybosy know another program ($50 or less) that will?
A cheaper and perhaps better solution would be to dowload the free Windows version of MPEG Streamclip and use it. Since it employs an MPEG based player/editor window, you can accurately set in and out points for the decrypted VOB and convert the segments directly to individual iPod compatible files. In addition, filters are available to change brightness, contrast, saturation, and/or volume, as well as, custom cropping with improved scaling as part of the conversion process. In some ways, it is also easier to use than QT Pro.
I've also read some user reviews on QuickTime. Are there a lot of bugs/issues with Windows XP?
If you really don't want to use Apple's QT tools, MPEG Streamclip for windows will also use the QT Alternate software instead. I personally don't find QT to be "buggy" to any real degree. Most of my problem have been traced to use of the QT H.264 codec at low video data rates. The "predictor-corrector" routines appear to be written for use at higher data rates (my guess would be in the 2.0 mbps to 5.0 mbps range) and so tend to be slow to "clamp" video data rate excursions in excess of user settings below 1.0-1.5 mbps with certain vintage video content. As I use the Mac version, I'm stuck with QT 7 and simply make adjustments as needed for a 100% conversion success rate for the nearly 400 videos currently on my iPod.

Ipod-Quicktime pro

Do i need quicktime pro to transfer my existing clips from the computer to ipod.

Do i need quicktime pro to transfer my existing clips from the computer to ipod.
Do you need it? Definitely not. As was already pointed out, there are many free alternative programs alvailable. Some would be required for certain source formats whether or not you have QT Pro. (E.g., "muxed" formats require an MPEG based converter since QT is basically a "frame-to-frame" based application.) In addition, iTunes v6.0.2 now includes direct access to the iPod dedicated conversion preset at no additional cost. True, this particular assest may be higher quality than needed and very slow, but iit is now free and biuilt in. Further, similar access is also available free via iMovie, FCX, and/or FCP applications. In fact, these latter applications also offer free acces to alternative, user selectable conversion options which allow greater conversion speed and/or resolution at the cost of decreased "per pixel quality." Dispite these alternative paths, I would normally recommend purchasing QT Pro registration if only for use as a "mini editing utility." However, with the current QT v7.0.4 problems (either done deliberately by Apple or due a bug in QT itself or a bug in iTunes preventing proper "recognition" of such converted files), I would have to withdraw those recommendations at least temporarily unless you fully understand these problems are willing/able to "work around" them.
Hope this is some help...

QuickTime Movie Files Won't Convert For iPod using iTunes and QuickTime Pro

I've got a ton, and I mean a ton of QuickTime movie files of music videos that I want to convert to use on the iPod. I tried using "Convert Selection For iPod" in the Advanced Menu on iTunes, but got the following message trying convert a QuickTime file of U2's Beautiful Day:
""Beautiful Day" could not be converted because this file does not allow for saving or conversion."
I purchased QuickTime Pro hoping that the features on Pro would convert the file. When I opened the same file to convert using QuickTime Pro, "Export" under the file menu was grayed out so I couldn't select it.
You'd think that an APPLE QuickTime Movie file that can be played on APPLE'S iTunes and APPLE'S QuickTime Player would be able to be converted to be used in APPLE'S iPod player. (Anybody notice how APPLE is capitalized to point out that the the hardware, software and file formats are ALL Apple?)
Instead I wasted money buying QuickTime Pro when it won't do what I specifically bought it for. Now I have all these QuickTime files which won't play on the iPod.
Can anybody provide some help or assistance on how to accomplish what I'm trying to accomplish???

If the file doesn't allow saving or conversions then it is protected by DRM (Fairplay).
Nothing can help QuickTime Pro convert protected files.

Can anyone tell me if Quicktime Pro retains aspect ratio once a video is rotated?

I'm reluctant to purchase Quicktime Pro until I know the answer to this question and Apple Support doesn't seem to have anyway to ask, so I thought I'd try this group.
I took some videos with my iPhone (the long way), and need to be able to rotate them and convert them to avi files. I understand that Quicktime Pro can do the rotation and conversion, but I saw one review that said the aspect ratio is not retained, i.e. the video comes out flattend (wider).
Can anyone tell me if this is still true with QT Pro, or if there are other solutions for resolving this outside of QT Pro?? I have tried a number of other converters, and found one that rotates, but aspect ratio not retained.
Thanks in advance for any help shared!!!

I took some videos with my iPhone (the long way), and need to be able to rotate them and convert them to avi files. I understand that Quicktime Pro can do the rotation and conversion, but I saw one review that said the aspect ratio is not retained, i.e. the video comes out flattend (wider).
This may or may not depend on your specific work flow. Many "settings' saved to the original file by QT 7 Pro are merely "playback instructions" which may or may not play correctly in other media players while these same settings do work properly when saved/converted to a new file container. In addition, not being a Windows user, I don't know if there are are any significant differences between the Mac and Windows versions of QT 7. In any case, I just took a short sample clip, stored it on my hard drive via Aperture 3, opened the file in QT 7 Pro, rotated the clip in QT 7 Pro, and used the "Save As..." command to store the modified file. This modified file now plays correctly in current versions of the QT 7, MPEG Streamclip, and VLC media players. Have uploaded a copy of this file so you can download it, test playback in various players you normally use, and/or test convert it to your specific AVI audio and video compression formats.
SAMPLE ROTATED FILE
Can anyone tell me if this is still true with QT Pro, or if there are other solutions for resolving this outside of QT Pro?? I have tried a number of other converters, and found one that rotates, but aspect ratio not retained.
As indicated above, the file plays correctly for me in various media players and all media "Inspector" windows, including other third party media information utilities, confirm the correct dimensions and aspect ratio as displayed. As to AVI conversion, I test converted the uploaded file to AVI (DivX5/MP3) at original dimensions using VisualHub. (Also tried the VideoMonkey AVI encode but it limited the source 720p file to a 720x480 output and I did not know if you were agreeable to such a restriction.) Suggest you run similar tests with your preferred Windows converters to confirm/refute results on your system.

Quicktime Pro, Problem Converting Video to iPod

When I convert my movie files using Quicktime Pro I encounter a problem. After the converting is over the video works on my iPod, but the audio track is lost and there is no sound. Can anyone help me?
Thanks
-Jason

Check to make sure it is not a muxed mpeg by opening the source file in QT Player and looking at MovieInfo in the Windows menu. If it is a muxed mpeg you will have to use something other than QT since it will not export the sound from mpegs. Some people have had good results with this freeware, but there are other Windows programs starting to appear for iPod conversion:
http://www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/iPod/

Quicktime Pro - Slow conversion

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