Quicktime MOV H264 encoding issues

[Ed Mays]

I converted AVI DV files to MOV using Format Factory and the H264 codec. The files will play in just about everthing except Quicktime, the ap that I converted them for! They look like the audio is not matching up with the video. I don't get it. These are the parameters I set Format Factory at:

Video
Encoder: AVC (H264)
Bitrate: 5000kb/s
FPS: 29.970
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Encode 2 pass: Yes

Audio
Audio encode: AAC
Sample Rate: 44100 Hz
Bitrate: 320kb/s
Audio Channel: 2

I'm totally stumped. Is there sombody out there who understands what's going on with these conversion codecs?

Thanks in advance for any assistance. -Ed

[Battle Vaughan]

Only thing I can see is that typically your audio is sampled at 48khz for video, but QT should still be able to handle it....might check your settings in quicktime, and/ or re-sample with another conversion program; for pc, Super converter (excellent freeware) has a wealth of settings and choices for conversion: SUPER &copy

EDIT: I tried converting a .wav ////(edit: error, meant to say .wmv file)//// to .mov using H264 and AAC and had problems also....in Quicktime sound synchs ok, but drops out after a second or so. When re-coded using .wav format, it worked fine in quicktime. However, the first .mov played back with no problems in VLC...small file, pretty good quadcore, so I don't think horsepower is a problem.

So...might try it as .wav audio. 44.1 rate converted from 48k did not affect the outcome, incidentally, so much for that idea....

[Ed Mays]

Hi Battle,

Thanks for the help. I was converting these videos for broadcast on Satellite. For some reason they have to be in MOV format. Are they broadcasting them using QT? I don't know. It seems odd. I suggested they dowload the VLC player. At least they could preview them. I haven't heard anything back. If there was a setting problem, they are having it too so that's probably a dead end.

I was converting them using SUPER before and uploading them to Archive.org thinking they could dowload them from there. That took too long and SUPER was inserting some little "flicks" of gobbledygook. Was this some kind of code to identify the codec? I don't know but it seemed to do it on every one so I switched to Format Factory and just sent them data discs. They thought the video was out of sync with the audio. It was just QT. They won't play on my Windows computer or their Mac in QT but will play in WMP and VLC. So I found an older video that I converted with SUPER and tried it on QT [upgraded just now] and it still had the problem.

I also tried changing the audio to 48Khz. It didn't fix it. I have uploaded this 2 minute test video to Archive.org if you would like to take a look:
http://www.archive.org/download/MovT...endellTest.mov
Archive Page:
http://www.archive.org/details/MovTest_893

Here is some data from Archive.org that may help. Does this line mean anything?
"Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 59.94 (2997/50) -> 29.97 (2997/100)"

Thanks -Ed

################## CLIP INFO ################
# FFmpeg version git-d09b5a8, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 the FFmpeg developers
# built on Jan 22 2011 17:46:15 with gcc 4.5.2
# configuration: --disable-shared --enable-avfilter --enable-gpl --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libfaac --enable-libgsm

--enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libschroedinger

--enable-libspeex --enable-libvorbis --enable-libxvid --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-pthreads --enable-static

--disable-vdpau --enable-x11grab --prefix=/usr --enable-version3 --enable-libvpx --disable-ffserver
# libavutil 50.34. 0 / 50.34. 0
# libavcore 0.16. 0 / 0.16. 0
# libavcodec 52.100. 0 / 52.100. 0
# libavformat 52.88. 0 / 52.88. 0
# libavdevice 52. 2. 2 / 52. 2. 2
# libavfilter 1.69. 0 / 1.69. 0
# libswscale 0.12. 0 / 0.12. 0
# libpostproc 51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0
#
# Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 59.94 (2997/50) -> 29.97 (2997/100)
# Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '/tmp/derive/MovTest_893/WendellTest.mov':
# Metadata:
# major_brand : qt
# minor_version : 512
# compatible_brands: qt
# creation_time : 1970-01-01 00:00:00
# encoder : Lavf52.55.0
# Duration: 00:02:00.00, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 5174 kb/s
# Stream #0.0(eng): Video: h264, yuv420p, 720x480 [PAR 8:9 DAR 4:3], 5005 kb/s, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 2997 tbn, 59.94

tbc
# Metadata:
# creation_time : 1970-01-01 00:00:00
# Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 165 kb/s
# Metadata:
# creation_time : 1970-01-01 00:00:00
# At least one output file must be specified
################## CLIP INFO ################

[Battle Vaughan]

<scratching head > The mov file from the archive page (aac codec) seems to play just fine on my quicktime...this is odd. All I can suggest is to re-code to quicktime and select .wav instead of aac, as the audio codec seems to the the sticky place. The frame rate comment --- I think --- would only refer to the video frame rate and appears to indicate interlaced video. Not sure on this, but I don't think it's a factor. If they are streaming this, they are may be using Quicktime Broadcaster, which would explain the .mov files....wish I had a definitive answer for you, can only offer the experimentation....I did my test file in Super to h264/.wav and noticed no artifacts. There is a new version out as of march 12.

Hoping you find a quick solution!

[Ed Mays]

Hello Battle,

I got some time to work on the problem. I realized that Format Factory is stretching the video. I went back and checked the aspect ratio and it had got on the "default" setting for some reason. I would think that would have left it the same as the original but I changed it to 720x480 NTSC and made another test. It still did it! I made the conversion with the latest release of SUPER as you suggested and it seems to work just fine. I'm suspecting that Format Factory must have some kind of glitch.

Thanks -Ed

[Battle Vaughan]

Glad you got it sorted! Can't figure out how the audio was affected by this, but whatever works...!