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[cooltype]

I am having trouble playing movies in JRiver Mac 21. All of my movies have the extension .m4v. However only the home videos and music videos will play in JRiver. The one exception, the full-length film “Machete” will play without problems. All others, downloaded from iTunes w/ the extension .m4v won’t play. They will play a frame, jump a serious number of frames, and then play a frame. These movies all play perfectly in iTunes and Apple TV.

I am using the latest build of MC 21, 21.10,55 on an iMac.

I appreciate any help you can offer.

Thanks.

[Awesome Donkey]

Purchased and downloaded from iTunes? As far as I know they're protected with DRM where they'll only play in iTunes. They play fine in iTunes and Apple TV because they're supported in both.

[JimH]

MC can play protected Apple filetypes if you set it to use Quicktime to play the filetypes.  You need to have QT installed.

[cooltype]

Hi JimH,

I have quicktime installed. Is there a setting I need to utilize so MC recognizes quicktime?

Thanks!

[JimH]

Look in settings under File Types.

[cooltype]

Thanks. Where is settings for File Types?

[JimH]

Tools > Options > File Types

[cooltype]

That was the first place I looked. I looked under every option in Tools/Options and no File Type anywhere. No File Types in the tree.

I tried to attach a screen shot of my Tool/Options window but neither “insert image” or “attach” would work. Under “attach”, when I select choose file, no browser window comes up.

When I look online for more info, the information available is very, very old.

[blgentry]

MC for Mac has no File Types in Options.

I'm not sure about playback of Apple DRM videos as I don't own any.  Resident MC Video guru Hendrick may have something to say on the matter.

I think you'd probably have to use a third party converter program to remove the DRM, but I'm really not sure.  How many of these movies have you purchased?

Brian.

[cooltype]

I looked up an app that removes DRM from movies. I don’t own enough downloaded movies to make it worth while. I will just play them in iTunes. When I extract movies from a DVD, I will use handbrake to convert the files to mp4.

Thanks.

[blgentry]

I looked up an app that removes DRM from movies. I don’t own enough downloaded movies to make it worth while. I will just play them in iTunes. When I extract movies from a DVD, I will use handbrake to convert the files to mp4.

I guessed that might be the case.    It's why I still buy inexpensive DVDs:  They are cheaper than downloads and then I have the physical copy of the movie and I can extract the unencrypted contents to play on ANYTHING.

It's worth noting that Handbrake necessarily removes information when you use it.  There are probably settings that can be used to minimize the video degradation, but I had real trouble finding any agreement on what settings produced video quality equivalent to the original DVD.  Plus handbrake goes crazy on the CPU for the entire rip.  So now I just use MakeMKV instead, as it retains ALL of the original video quality, yet removes the encryption in the process.  Sure, the files are larger, but I'm willing to live with the tradeoff because disk space is so cheap now.

At current prices for external USB drives a typical 6GB rip of a DVD costs around $0.20 in disk space consumed.  I'm ok with that.  It adds 20 cents to the cost of any DVD I buy.  Blurays are about 5x the size, so it adds about $1 to the overall cost.

Brian.

[cooltype]

In general, I prefer to play movies from the disc on my Oppo blu-ray player. You can’t beat the video or audio quality. I don’t mind streaming home videos. JRiver is awesome for audio but the Mac version is lacking in the video area. It’s easier to just play the discs.

I will look into MakeMkV. Thanks for the info!

[blgentry]

In general, I prefer to play movies from the disc on my Oppo blu-ray player. You can’t beat the video or audio quality. I don’t mind streaming home videos.

Who said anything about "streaming"?  I thought we were talking about MC playing video files from it's own library.  This is not streaming at low quality.  This is native video playback.

JRiver is awesome for audio but the Mac version is lacking in the video area. It’s easier to just play the discs.

I don't understand your statement.  What's the problem with MC's video playback?  It's not quite as sophisticated as the Windows version of MC, but it's pretty good.  I'm honestly curious what you have found lacking.

Brian.

[cooltype]

Keep your shirt on Brian, I misused “streaming”. The problem with MC mac’s video playback is that it is not as sophisticated as the Windows version, so you answered your own question.I shouldn’t have to convert files in a 3rd party app to watch them from MC. It’s much easier to put the disc in my Oppo player where, frankly, the video and audio quality is better. That is the problem with MC mac in general. It’s lacking too many great features that the Windows version has, like Theater View. I am hardly the first one to make that observation.

The audio side is fantastic and I’m very happy with that, even without Theater View. My system never sounded better, sending hi-res files via MC to my DAC. The organizational utilities are great too. I can organize my files just like I had my physical collection and I love that. MC is the only way to go for the computer audiophile. I just don’t have the same ease of use with the video side.

[blgentry]

The problem with MC mac’s video playback is that it is not as sophisticated as the Windows version, so you answered your own question.I shouldn’t have to convert files in a 3rd party app to watch them from MC. It’s much easier to put the disc in my Oppo player where, frankly, the video and audio quality is better.

That's what I don't understand.  Is it just the video quality difference you see?  Or do you really mean that the audio playback is better on the Oppo too?  Surely you just mistyped that since you said that MC's audio playback is some of the best you've heard. 

So perhaps it's mainly the video scaling that the Oppo can do so that video looks better?  I don't currently run MC for Mac into an external display (or TV), so this is an area I don't have any experience with.

The other features like Theater view are definitely not anything that can be argued:  The windows version has them and the Mac version doesn't.  It's unfortunate as Theater view is a neat feature and we aren't likely to see it any time soon on the Mac side.

The only good news here for you is that video support for Mac is getting better incrementally.  Any DVD or BD that you rip today (at full quality) will still be sitting there in your Library, waiting to be played any time.  Organized perfectly as you have instructed MC to do.  ...and when video support is more up to your standards, you can play the same file, only better with an improved video engine.

Or build an HTPC based on Windows and play the files there.  The upgrade to a master license is really cheap.  It's just having to support windows and another machine that's the real price. 

Brian.

[cooltype]

I can run Windows through bootcamp on my mac. Don’t need a new machine. Btw, I have a 70” TV. Why would I watch movies on my computer?