iPhone Movie - Format Needed to add to a forum post?

[RadDave]

Hi Guys - on a short vacation to the South Carolina coast (Myrtle Beach - tickets to see Jay Leno tomorrow) - decided to bring my new iPhone XR as my only camera, so testing its features - arrived yesterday and took a 20 sec movie from our balcony of the ocean - played beautifully on the phone, both video & sound - AirDropped the movie to my MBAir which played in Quick Time but the video had some minor distortions and I could not hear the sound, plus the file was not accepted as an upload on the forum I was trying to add a post. So, first how do I transfer a movie from the iPhone to macOS so that the video quality and the sound are maintained; and do I need to change the format of the file to upload to a website (trying to get this on a travelogue in the iPad Forums), e.g. convert into a youTube video? Thanks. Dave

 

[IWT]

Hi Dave

This may or may not help, but the only way I’ve found of transferring movies from iPhone to iMac is by direct USB cable. And I transfer them into Photos app where the play perfectly.

WiFi transfer either doesn’t work at all or distorts and degrades the movie.

If I’m sending the movie to someone, I do it from within Photos.

I admit I rarely post movies so I’m not much help there. When I have done so, it was, again, from within Photos app.

Better advice will follow, I’m sure.

Ian

 

[badshoehabit]

I Air Drop and have not had issues after transfer to MBP nor with uploading to YouTube from MBP. Don't do it often as I'm more into stills than video.

Suggest looking at the Export options in Photos. This was a straight upload from Photos - my ESS after surgery to fix a broken leg. YouTube

 

[Raz0rEdge]

You cannot upload videos to the forum, only 3 image types are supported. If you want to "embed" a video here, you'll have to upload it to YouTube, Vimeo or other video sharing sites and then past the URL in here.

As far as video quality goes, transferring the video over AirDrop or physical USB connection shouldn't have any effect. I constantly use AirDrop to send all sorts of files around and they are all fine.

QuickTime should definitely not have any issues playing the video files created on your iPhone, but just for testing if you don't already have it, can you grab a copy of VLC and try it with your video file. If VLC can't play it, no-one can.

 

[ferrarr]

When you AirDropped it, did you put it, or did it go in Photos, or your Downloads folder? I believe it will work when/if you put it in Photos app.

 

[chscag]

What Bob said above.

AirDrop will automatically place the video or photos in your downloads folder not Photos. It should work okay from Photos as Ian and Bob described.

 

[RadDave]

Thanks All for your comments, and the many suggestions. I've: 1) Cabled the iPhone to the MBAir and using both iTunes and iMazing transferred the files to a variety of sites, including DLs & Photos - still the same distortions w/o audio; 2) I've tried AirDrop numerous times w/o success; and 3) Export options for Photos on the iPhone seem to offer little help (I've changed a number of the options there w/o success); I'm on a hotel public Wi-Fi network but do not see why that should affect my cabled attempts? Finally, I uploaded the file to YouTube - the audio was fine but the resolution of the image poor vs. what I see on the iPhone. I'm here only a few more days only - will retry at home. Thanks again.

P.S. I've only uploaded a few of my videos over the years and believe used embedding via YouTube both times (again to several travelogues in the iPad Forums), so FAR from experienced. Dave

 

[ferrarr]

Can I ask what Mac you are using? Is it a retina model? Maybe the video distortion is due to the screen resolution?

 

[RadDave]

Can I ask what Mac you are using? Is it a retina model? Maybe the video distortion is due to the screen resolution?

Hi Bob - my 'travel' laptop, early 2015 non-retina MBAir (display is set at 1280x800); my MBPro at home has a retina screen, so will be one of my tests - thanks for the suggestion. Dave

 

[RadDave]

Follow-Up: Now home and on my older MBPro (retina display) - made a 'new' movie of my den & also 'Air Dropped' the hotel balcony movie from the trip, both '1080 x 1920, 30fs, H.264, Stereo' - in Quick Time, both videos played fine. In my hotel room, I downloaded HandBrake to the MBAir and down sized the resolution which then played - that laptop has been 'acting up' for about 6 months (e.g. not sleeping properly, logging out of my account, hesitant needing a reboot - ran SMC & NVRAM which did not seem to help), so not sure if the issue is just the much lesser screen resolution and/or a software/hardware issue? But planning to wait for a Catalina install to see if the problem is resolved, if not then will explored further - again thanks for your help and comments. Dave

ADDENDUM: Ran Apple Diagnostics on the MBAir (i.e. start + D key) and nothing was found; also checked the SSD w/ DriveDx - drive is in great shape w/ no errors; and finally ran Coconut Battery and the health is still 100% - SO, does not seem to be a HW issue - a Mojave update 'popped up' today and installed - will see if that helps; if not, then a Catalina install awaits in the near future.