Playing 720p BluRay nHD x264 on Quicktime Freezes

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Hi there. I have some videos that are 720p BluRay nHD x264. However, when i play them on my 2009 13'' MBP Quicktime, around the 13min mark the video freezes/turns black. however the audio is still running. May i know what is the problem? I cant fast forward past that area too without the same thing happening.
 

chscag

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Are you saying that you have a Blue Ray external player hooked up to your MBP or that you're playing the BR videos directly from your hard drive?

Please clarify.

Regards.
 
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im playing them directly from my hard-drive. i downloaded the videos from the net and tried playing them. its pretty smooth. but i just cant seem to fastforward past a certain point (near the 13 min mark). it just hangs at the previous scene with the audio continuing, or a black screen (with the audio as normal)
 

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OK, understand. I'm wondering if QuickTime even supports the Blue Ray format? Why not give VLC a try. And while you're at it, download and install the free Perian add on for QuickTime.

VLC

Perian

Regards.
 
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Quicktime will run MKV (assuming that's the format) with Perian, but it doesn't play too smoothly all of the time, even on my more powerful iMac.
VLC will also play them, though the same applies.
I would suggest that more ram may help, but in general I think it's because there is no native support on Mac for this format yet. VLC will be working on it though.
One other thing though.
When you have fast forwarded, does it play smoothly thereafter? If so I suggest you have a glitchy file.
 
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okay sorry for not clarifying a few stuffs.

firstly, it is an mp4 file. when i fast forward beyond (about 13 mins), the video thereafter is just a black screen. but audio remains as per normal. when i play it right from the start, video playback is extremely smooth with no freezeframes or lag. But when i continue playing it, till somewhere around 20mins, the video hangs, but sound still continues.

Secondly, i have 4GB ram, with perian installed for quicktime. i have a few similar videos, and they all cant be fastforwaded either. the strange thing is i could fast forward or scroll by dragging the playback bar, WITHIN the first 15mins or so of the video. but beyond that when i drag there or fastforward, its just a black screen. its really weird.

Hope this is detailed enough for you to give me advice. THanks. Will go try VLC now.
 

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Tell us one thing. If you just play the video and do not Fast Forward it, does it turn black at that 13 Minute mark?
 
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nope. but for one of the videos, the video playback hanged at somewhere around 20mins but audio continues. i haven tried the remaining videos yet. so it could be that this particular video is beyond the 20mins mark. however, all of the videos i tried couldnt fast forward beyond a certain point.

however i just downloaded VLC, and most (i haven tried all) of the videos worked. fastforwarding etc. so it seems quicktime is the problem here. it is strange that it cant fastforward beyond a certain period.
 

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The reason I asked is at one point VLC (Especially the version for Power PC Macs) did that very thing on me when Fast Forwarding videos or even worse, crashed to the desktop. That no longer happens BTW.

I will try some long MP4's here and do the fast forward through them and get back to you.
 
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Tell us one thing. If you just play the video and do not Fast Forward it, does it turn black at that 13 Minute mark?

he indicates in his first post that he can play all the way to the 13 minute mark then it freezes. he doesn't start to fast forward until after that point trying to get past the frozen section.

if i were the op i would tell where he is buying the .mp4's and maybe even tell us which .mp4's they are to see if there is a chance there are others with the same file that is playing properly. how big is the .mp4 a BluRay disc is pretty large so if it is just a file ripped from a BluRay and is only 3 or 4 gigs there is going to be some compression and it being a ripped BluRay wouldn't be the issue. do you have any problems running other .mp4 movies? could be if there Ripped all by the same individual they could be simply a bad rendering job.
 
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he indicates in his first post that he can play all the way to the 13 minute mark then it freezes. he doesn't start to fast forward until after that point trying to get past the frozen section.

if i were the op i would tell where he is buying the .mp4's and maybe even tell us which .mp4's they are to see if there is a chance there are others with the same file that is playing properly. how big is the .mp4 a BluRay disc is pretty large so if it is just a file ripped from a BluRay and is only 3 or 4 gigs there is going to be some compression and it being a ripped BluRay wouldn't be the issue. do you have any problems running other .mp4 movies? could be if there Ripped all by the same individual they could be simply a bad rendering job.

sorry i think i mentioned smth wrong there. i can play till 20 mins. but i can only fast forward till 13mins or so.

hmm im not proud to say this, but it is a TV show (Prison Break) i downloaded via torrent. :Blushing: each video (episode) is about 700mb for 40+ mins.

im not sure if it is a bad rendering job, as i could play them fine on VLC. just wondering if its some sort of bad support that Quicktime has for such formats, which is pretty disappointing.
 
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my quicktime plays .mp4s just fine. out of curiosity are you hooking your macbook to a tv? i would really like to know what the quality is of a 700mb bluray rip.
 
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nope. im just playing it on my MBP. not hooked up to anything.

mine plays other mp4s just fine as well. its just this. which is why its weird
 
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I think you hit the nail on the head, saying that Quicktime with Perian probably has an issue with this kind of sized MP4.
 
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I think I can tell you what's happening after doing a little research.

I found a high-definition MP4 short film (for a Blu-Ray release, so I presume this is the same thing as "ripped from a Blu-Ray) and played it in both QuickTime X and VLC.

VLC had no trouble with it, loading it quickly and scrubbing forward and back.

QuickTime, on the other hand, acted like it was "streaming" it ... the movie started quickly, but if I tried to fast forward it very far I ran into the same problem as the OP: it would only let me get so far, then black.

While I sat back and thought about this, I had the film on pause. When I tried it again five or ten minutes later, *I found I could get further along before the "black" happened.*

I waited another few minutes and tried again. Further still.

Quicktime X "loads" the movie as it goes (even in pause), unlike VLC. I'm not sure why, but that's what I found. I checked this by playing in QuickTime 7 Pro (which of course I still have) and you can SEE it loading as it goes.
 

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Chas is right and the longer and more quality the video is, the longer it takes to load. If you try to fast forward and the whole video is not loaded in Quicktime, it will do just that.

It's almost (Like Chas said) like it's streaming the video like from You Tube! I have noticed that for a long time now in Quicktime. The way you described it did not make me think of what Chas just described. I think he hit the nail right on the head with his post.

Even Quicktime (non X) takes a while to completely load some large videos.
 
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Spot on there Chas. Weird for it to work like that!
 
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Chas when you did your test and the screen was black were you still able to hear sound? the op said in the beginning of this thread that when he would fast forward he could still hear but the screen would be black. Just wondering. thanks
 
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yea i think chas is right too. but either way its really weird that it works like that. hmm so i guess i'll stick with VLC for high def videos from now on.
 
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chas_m

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Chas when you did your test and the screen was black were you still able to hear sound? the op said in the beginning of this thread that when he would fast forward he could still hear but the screen would be black. Just wondering. thanks

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

The basic problem is that video and audio in some of these offbeat formats (like MKV for example) can be entirely different codecs, each requiring a certain amount of processing. Some codecs are "native," some aren't, some need a lot of processing, some don't.

It's possible that Apple's player is doing more "post-processing" on the fly than VLC does, or it could simply be that VLC's player is just plain BETTER at dealing with these factors than QuickTime.

I'd love to see the teams for the two products have a nice chat someday ... :)
 

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