mp4 played incorrectly in Quicktime

rhbc73 · 18th July 2013, 05:40

Hi friends,

I'm developing a video converting tool and met a small problem in X264 encoded mp4 file.

I converted a 3gp file into a mp4 one, and while the converted mp4 file can be played correctly in ffplay and VLC player, it shows some dark image while played in Quicktime Windows version (V7.7.4)

And if I convert that mp4 file into .mov using X264 as video encoder, then Quicktime can play it correctly.

I've attached the source 3gp and converted mp4 file, hope someone can find out the cause of the problem.

Great thanks

SamNeal2001 · 23rd July 2013, 10:39

I'm not the x264 expert around here, but I think I read somewhere QuickTime can't display qp lower than 4.

You have to force --qpmin 4 in your commandline.

benwaggoner · 24th July 2013, 05:18

I've found that High Profile encodes of even moderate complexity can be quite unreliable in QuickTime, particularly in QuickTime for Windows which is all old crufty software decoders. Recent Mac OS X and hardware has HW decode and is somewhat better.

kabelbrand · 24th July 2013, 09:05

This was also my experience - when encoding for QT 7 compatibility I disabled 8x8 DCT which is used in High Profile.

The qpmin workaround suggested by SamNeal2001 might be a better solution than disabling 8x8 DCT but I haven't tried.

Some earlier QT versions where reported to have problems with B-Frames>1 and B-Pyramid but this should be ok now.

Here's some more info: QuickTime_Player_7.7_compatibility

24th July 2013, 05:18	#3 \| Link
benwaggoner Moderator Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 4,770	I've found that High Profile encodes of even moderate complexity can be quite unreliable in QuickTime, particularly in QuickTime for Windows which is all old crufty software decoders. Recent Mac OS X and hardware has HW decode and is somewhat better. __________________ Ben Waggoner Principal Video Specialist, Amazon Prime Video My Compression Book

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23rd July 2013, 10:39	#2 \| Link
SamNeal2001 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 13	I'm not the x264 expert around here, but I think I read somewhere QuickTime can't display qp lower than 4. You have to force --qpmin 4 in your commandline.

24th July 2013, 09:05	#4 \| Link
kabelbrand Compression mode: Lousy Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Hamburg, Germany Posts: 72	This was also my experience - when encoding for QT 7 compatibility I disabled 8x8 DCT which is used in High Profile. The qpmin workaround suggested by SamNeal2001 might be a better solution than disabling 8x8 DCT but I haven't tried. Some earlier QT versions where reported to have problems with B-Frames>1 and B-Pyramid but this should be ok now. Here's some more info: QuickTime_Player_7.7_compatibility