Why are the videos shot by my PPC-6700 NOT viewable with Windows Media Player!!!!!!

[wifi4milez]

This must be the dumbest thing I have ever seen. My PPC-6700 is running WM5, and the videos it takes are NOT viewable using Windows Media Player on my computer. In fact, the only way to actually view the videos shot on my Windows Mobile device is to use Quictime, and Apple product! Is there a workaround? The videos are all encoded in MP4 format, and therefore when you send them to the 90% of people who DONT use Quicktime they cant see them. Can I change it so that the phone encodes in .MOV instead?

[wifi4milez]

After looking through the settings, I have found the answer! While shooting a video, go to settings, and the change the "capture mode" to "motion-JPEG AVI". I am still perplexed as to why the other 2 video options are not playable using WMP on a PC, but at least now I know! Happy shooting everyone!! As a side note, everyday I find more and more issues with WM5 that are really annoying.......

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Odd as it may seem, the camera/video program IS NOT a Microsoft product and is not a standard part of Windows Mobile. It is an HTC product, and thus gets dropped into each and every one of their designs, including your Wizard.

[Jason Dunn]

In this case it's probably HTC/i-Mate not loading up the proper CODECS on the device for playback - so you can blame them. ;-)

[wifi4milez]

You both are right. The more I think about it the more it clearly is an HTC thing. The question still remains however, why would the default codec be one that cant be played (natively) on a Windows PC?? Either way I figured out the fix, so its all water under the bridge.

[Jason Dunn]

...why would the default codec be one that cant be played (natively) on a Windows PC??

Incredibly poor i-Mate quality control and not enough testing? That explains a LOT about the problems we all see... ;-)

[Janak Parekh]

...why would the default codec be one that cant be played (natively) on a Windows PC??
Incredibly poor i-Mate quality control and not enough testing? That explains a LOT about the problems we all see... ;-)
Either that, or they're using some new efficient codec by default that isn't readily available yet.

--janak

[tufif]

I've got the t-mobile mda flavor of the wizard, and my videos play fine on my laptop, but I can't import the files into any of my video software. Does anybody know of a program that can be used to convert these into a more standard format?

[Edgar_]

Kevin

Take a look at Nero Ultra with Nero Recode. I've used it for everythign from DVD conversions, to tivo conversions to PPC movies.

-Edgar_

[wifi4milez]

...why would the default codec be one that cant be played (natively) on a Windows PC??
Incredibly poor i-Mate quality control and not enough testing? That explains a LOT about the problems we all see... ;-)
Either that, or they're using some new efficient codec by default that isn't readily available yet.

--janak

The phone offers the following formats:

.avi (WMP compatible)
.mp4 (quicktime compatible)
.3g2 (quicktime compatible)

.avi takes up close to three times the amount of space, but the other two formats dont work without quicktime! I have qt installed, but most people do not so the only "usable" format is .avi(largest). I have never heard of .3gp before, so I cant comment on it. They all look pretty much the same so I guess it depends on how big your memory card is.

[burtcom]

Huh?

A lot of Windows folks with iPods use iTunes, and of course QT comes with that.

And why not use QuickTime? It's excellent quality, and free.

I think perhaps a lot more Windows users have QT installed than you think.

[wifi4milez]

QT doesnt come WITH iTunes, it is an optional install with the program. I personally never download and install the "optional" software that comes with the apps I use, given that the majority of them are junkware. You are probably correct that more people download QT in this manor, however I can guarantee you that far more only have WMP installed. The other thing is that for less advanced users WMP (and iTunes for that matter) both programs regularly try to "reclaim" file types for their own use. I have found that WMP is far more "pushy" in this way and therefore users will find that .mp4 files will show up as WMP files but not be playable.

[burtcom]

I thought iTunes needed Quicktime -- it uses it as the engine for audio and video?

[Janak Parekh]

QT doesnt come WITH iTunes, it is an optional install with the program.
You've got it backwards. QuickTime can be downloaded separately, but it is bundled with and is a required component of iTunes; as burtcom says, iTunes uses QuickTime as the media playback engine under the hood. I think this is the point you were trying to make. ;)

The other thing is that for less advanced users WMP (and iTunes for that matter) both programs regularly try to "reclaim" file types for their own use. I have found that WMP is far more "pushy" in this way and therefore users will find that .mp4 files will show up as WMP files but not be playable.
Nearly every jukebox app does this. If you do note during install, however, iTunes (and WMP, for that matter) do give you the option to turn this behavior off, and do honor it pretty well.

--janak