Quicktime movie player

[rok17]

Does anyone know of a video player for the pocket pc that plays quicktime movies.

Thanks.

[Jason Dunn]

There's PictPocket:

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/pocketpc/pictpocket.html

But, if memory serves, when I tried this it worked with one of the many QT files I tried. Worth a look though!

[rok17]

I'll give it a try, thanks. :D

[GSmith]

Many people will tell you about TCPMP (formerly BetaPlay). And so will I.

It plays a lot of different types of video and audio files.

For more choices, see
http://www.feederreader.com/mediachart.html

Greg Smith
Author, FeederReader - Pocket PC *direct* RSS text, audio, video, podcasts
www.FeederReader.com - Download on the Road

[Darius Wey]

Many people will tell you about TCPMP (formerly BetaPlay). And so will I.

It plays a lot of different types of video and audio files.

TCPMP won't handle QuickTime MOV files, but it will handle MPEG-4s (e.g. MP4, M4A, etc.). Nevertheless, I'll definitely add my vote for TCPMP being a killer application for media playback.

[GSmith]

Darius,

I am SO confused about how we (all) describe video files. In my mind, there is no single definition of "Quicktime MOV files". Quicktime is a program, and (I think?) an audio codec, and (I think?) a video codec. There are video codecs, audio codecs and there are container formats. Some container formats can only contain (by specification) certain video codecs and certain audio codecs. And players that say they "support" a particular container format do not always support all codecs that can be contained within.

All in all: VERY CONFUSING to the non-expert (which I think still includes me).

What most people want to know is "I have a file with extension ___, what player can play it?". There is no easy answer because 1) player writers do not always specify which codecs are supported, sometimes because 2) player writers may allow 3rd-party plug-ins to support codecs not written into the program directly.

So, I took a look at all the video on my Pocket PC. Since I download and play videoblogs every day (using FeederReader, of course!) on my Pocket PC, I have a lot of downloads from various sources. Just now, I happen to have 7 video files with the extension MOV from 4 different sources/videoblogs.

For our mutual edification, here is what is reported in TCPMP "Media Info..." on each of the files. I've also indicated whether TCPMP was able to play them (short answer: all except the audio that used a codec identified as "QDesign Music 2, 0450").

<pre>#/src 5/2 1/1 1/1
Ext MOV MOV MOV
Format MPEG4 Files MPEG4 Files MPEG4 files
Audio MPEG4 AAC, AAC0 QDesign Music 2, 0450 10011
Codec LibFAAD LC,HE,PS AAC IMA QuickTime ADPCM
TCPMP YES NO YES

Video MPEG-4 Video, MP4V H263 H263
Codec MPEG4 DivX/XviD H.263 H.263
TCPMP YES YES YES</pre>

So with this in mind, could you specify exactly what you mean by "Quicktime MOV file". And also, if I have any of the above description wrong, please correct me!

Thanks!

[Darius Wey]

I am SO confused about how we (all) describe video files. In my mind, there is no single definition of "Quicktime MOV files". Quicktime is a program, and (I think?) an audio codec, and (I think?) a video codec. There are video codecs, audio codecs and there are container formats. Some container formats can only contain (by specification) certain video codecs and certain audio codecs. And players that say they "support" a particular container format do not always support all codecs that can be contained within.

Sorry, sometimes (e.g. my earlier post) I try to keep things simplistic for the new users, though when I do that, it tends to go against the proper theory.

MP4, MOV, and AVI (to name a few) are all container formats -- i.e. it's a package of a set of different streams (usually one audio and one video) to produce one single file. If I recall correctly, MOV was the basis behind the creation of the MP4 container standard.

What most people want to know is "I have a file with extension ___, what player can play it?". There is no easy answer because 1) player writers do not always specify which codecs are supported, sometimes because 2) player writers may allow 3rd-party plug-ins to support codecs not written into the program directly.

Correct. There is no easy answer to this since every container format is based on different streams, and at the end of the day, if a player supports the "package of streams", the file will play back in its entirety. If not, then it won't (but third-party plugins, as you suggested, can provide some light at the end of the tunnel, and TCPMP is a prime example of a program which supports that).

For our mutual edification, here is what is reported in TCPMP "Media Info..." on each of the files. I've also indicated whether TCPMP was able to play them (short answer: all except the audio that used a codec identified as "QDesign Music 2, 0450").

Right, so you've done the analysis, and you've found that some do play back fine, which leads me on to the next question.

So with this in mind, could you specify exactly what you mean by "Quicktime MOV file". And also, if I have any of the above description wrong, please correct me!

Like I mentioned earlier, I decided to keep things simple by stating that TCPMP didn't support MOV (and a quick look in the TCPMP File Associations settings will confirm that). MP4 was created as a container standard to be universally supported by players which supported the MPEG-4 standard. MOV, on the other hand, is still a container localised to Apple, and because of that, there are some streams used in MOV that aren't universally supported by other players (so it would be difficult stating that Program X can support MOV fully, since we live in a world full of incompatibilities). At the end of the day, if the player is able to demux and decode the streams within a MOV or MP4 container fine, then it will play back fine. If not, then you might only get audio, or video, or nothing at all.

Even now, it's hard keeping up with all the streams and all the containers available, so I don't blame anyone for getting confused in this mess.