Posted by: "Neil Tungate"
>> I am wondering if someone on the list with a pc could try playback of
>> that particular movie and report if it plays successfully or not? That
>> would be really helpful and I am thanking you in advance.
>
> I'm running XP, Firefox 2.0.0.3 and Quicktime 7.1.5 on a PC and the
> movie plays fine here.
>
I'm suspecting that the PC's having trouble either have not been kept up
to date or are disorganized as to software versions or installations. I
no longer have any sympathy for anyone who does not keep their software
organized. It's not all that easy but more effort could be applied. Look
just how old things like Windows 98 are now and we still see folks
unhappy when something much newer than the OS fails there. And they want
someone to fix it for them. On the same vein I used to see a little
sense in mac people shouldering the load of doing conversion just so PC
folks could use things, but I don't anymore. PC's keep being a drag on
technology improvement. I'm just not willing to use old formats just for
PC folks, they can do what mac people have done for a long time, take
responsibility for making sure their software keeps up. (note that goes
for mac people too)
Sorry to get up on my speaking platform, but it's how this old codger
feels. Life is just too short, one of the things I definitely got a
lesson in with the cancer. Computers are a tool I use, they are
definitely are not a hobby for me. They take the least of my time if I
set them up correctly for what I'm doing.
BTW, my iPod Video plays it just fine too. You do have to convert video
to a .m4v format for ipods using Quicktime for itunes to be happy, of
course. And the picture is so tiny you loose a lot of detail. Oh, yes,
the .m4v format file you get plays in firefox too, at the original size,
but a loss of detail.
And my Quicktime will convert it as a .wmv file too, which plays fine
here in Quicktime or Windows Media Player. Not as good resolution of the
moving sonogram, however. (and of course that's the only format Windows
Media Player recognizes)
For those speculating of the long list of options for the video I had I
choose MPEG4 Video set at medium compression, not any of the other
options mentioned. (that was one of three suggestions that came up in
the program for the particular grab I'd done, and I hoped that the mpeg4
system was in place) The frame rate was the grabber's 10 FPS default.
The audio I did choose the IMA4 protocol mentioned. Most of the other
choices offered I'd tried in the past and they messed up the sound more
than that one. I was not happy with the choices I had for the sound as
far as something useful for sending around on the internet. I'd hoped
these sonogram files could be used routinely for discussing sounds, but
so far the files are too big for general use. Though I'll probably play
with it some more, at least for personal use.
As far as the suggestion that Quicktime 7.1.5 has some sort of flaws
playing or converting movies, we've been doing this quite a bit here
with it with no sign of problems whatsoever. (don't rebuild a bunch of
iPod videos, it's a tar baby of things to play with) We do keep both the
G4 macs and my Intel MacBook Pro right up to date with the software
upgrades, and that may be a hint. We also have all machines running
Quicktime Pro, though that probably is not the problem. We also have a
Sony laptop PC that runs the clip fine and it's on Windows 2000, though
the quicktime on it is much newer. I'd have to ask my son just what he's
got on it right now. He's the one running movies on it at times, stuff
he's converted or recorded. I do not doubt that Quicktime has bugs,
everything does these days, but for us the effect of these is virtually
invisible.
The original question was what software was available for producing a
playable combo of sonogram and sound. Snapz Pro X combined with a
suitable realtime sonogram program will do the trick, as the example
shows. If interested you can download the program and experiment with
all the settings to get what you want that will play for you. I
downloaded and tried several programs, but Snapz Pro X was well better,
so it's the one I bought.
You won't be able to get SparkXL, unfortunately as it's a discontinued
product. It sure does nice sonograms, (you only saw a basic one) and
runs filter plugins very well in multiples, so it's still a main use
software for me. I am watching for a replacement.
For those interested and with the intel mac, with a short experiment it
looks like Snapz Pro X can do a quicktime movie of something in the
parallels window, so it could (maybe) do the movie of a PC sonogram
software there. I've not fully tried this one as I don't have any PC
sonogram software.
That's about all I have, have fun!
Walt
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