Video playback erratic
 

When I download a video I am not able to play the whole thing.
Early in the download when I "launch" it will show me te first 2% or so.
Later when launch it will show the first 3-4% but then something happens.
When I have downloaded more, like 10% (many megs) it will not show the next part of the video.
I have tried Quicktime and downloaded a couple of other players, but nothing seems to work.
The videos are not complete, but it seems like I should be able to watch the percentage of the movie that has been downloaded into the "incomplete" file.
Thanks ahead of time for any help.
Y'all have been very thoughtful in the past.

Which version are using Michael? Versions prior to 3.X did not attempt to download the file in sequential order, but from 3.X on, every attempt was made to ensure that the file was downloaded in order. While this has no effect on the end result (you'll always have the full file), downloading in order can help with things like previewing and verifying. Of course, even with 3.X, the download can still be out of order (if a slow source is giving you the beginning of the file and a faster source is giving you the end of the file).

There is a patch that was sent into the development mailing list that displays a 'chunked' progress bar, so that people can clearly see which portions of the file are downloaded. The patch has taken the backburner for a little while, because there were some more pressing network changes that needed to be made, but I think after 3.2 comes out we'll look at integrating it.

Video Playback erratic
 

Thanks.
I am using the latest version.

Your answer that I may have different chunks may be right on.
I am only downloading at 56K so it takes a long time to get a video.

What is so confusing is that I have seen 10 megs or so of the video on an earlier launch but when I launch again it after downloading more, it will only show me the first 2% or so.
The incomplete file shows as many as 20 megs, but again, when I try to play it back only the first 2-4% plays.
I very mucy appreciate you taking time out to help.
Michael Harrington
Tallahassee, Florida

Michael,

Some mpgs that were created on Windows exhibit a weird pattern on a Mac. If you launch a file, and manually move the scroll bar to the end and then back a bit, you may see different parts of a video, yet it won't play properly if you just hit the play button. Segments are obviously not being played.

There is a shareware program called Rosetta that will 'fix' and 're split' these problem videos. You end up with more files, but at least you can watch them.

This 'may' be what is happening to you.

While I certainly do not wish to contradict sberlin, who certainly knows more than I do and I respect, it seems strange to me that chunks would be going at diff speeds on 56k.

Since 56k is more or less the effective slowest speed, he would be the limiting factor in all downloads, so the chance of someone uploading slower than he can download is very low. While I could see this happening if you could dl faster due to a high speed connection, wouldn't the chance of someone uploading slower than a 56k could download be pretty low? Cuz this seems to be a repeating problem.

I didn't know he was on 56k before I answered. ;)

Of course, it's still highly possible that earlier chunks of the file could be with slower downloaders. Regardless, downloading (and uploading) are being modified for the introduction of partial-file sharing, so we'll take a closer look just to make sure nothing's wrong.

Video Playback erratic
 

Thank you Clueless.
I experienced exactly what you described but it was so strange I didn't know exactly how to describe it.
I could drag back the scroll button and see parts of the video I'd never seen.
I will check out Rosetta. Thanks.

Thanks also to whomever suggested VLC viewer.
It worked as promised.

I know it sounds ickey, but thanks again for y'alls help.
To have a group of wizards, white knights, gurus, out there doing their best to answer any yahoo's questions is mind boggling.

I have been teaching high school English for almost 30 years.
I was trained to teach the faculty how to use the Mac Plus when it was state of the art and have been "bi" (Windows at school, Mac at home) for the last decade or so.
I have done uncountable favors over the years, trouble-shooting for others and I guess I'm finally getting my "goes around, comes around".

Thanks again.
michaellloyd

Yeah, it was hard for me to describe as well.
You can get Rosetta via versiontracker, but you probably already know that, being a vet.
Using the Rosetta File Menu, try to 'fix' and 'split'. You can also try 'decode', and if you figure out what it does, tell me.

No problem Michael.

Sberlin ;) I knew you couldn't be wrong.

I got Rosetta via Tucows.
I've been poking around with it but have no difinitive answer as to what it is doing.

Michael:

Do the videos work after they've been completely downloaded?

"Do the videos work after they've been completely downloaded?"


If they work fine after a complete download, then my theory is incorrect.

Taken from Rosetta Help:

"The Fix Command: Correcting Problem Movie Files
The Fix command allows certain types of movie file problems to be corrected. These problems are often found in movies downloaded from usenet and other places. A standard file dialog is shown allowing the movies files to be fixed to be selected. After clicking on OK, one of two things may happen. The program will first check to see if each selected file seems to be a CDXA format movie file. If it is, it will try to create a new MPEG file that has the CDXA header data removed. Otherwise each file (assumed to be a combined MPEG file) will be split into its constituent movie files. The original files are never modified or moved. If the combined movie file was named ?movie.mpg? and consisted of three joined movies, the result will be three new movie files named ?movie.mpg-1?, ?movie.mpg-2? and ?movie.mpg-3?. Using a QuickTime movie player you should be able to play the new movie files in their entirety. If the movie file you try to split contains just a single MPEG movie then no new files are created. Also note that the original file must be a true MPEG file, and not a QuickTime movie file containing MPEG movie data. The latter kind of file can not be resplit using Rosetta.

Unlike the other features provided by Rosetta, resplitting combined MPEG movies and removing the header from CDXA movies may not always work. The original movies may not be in the proper format, or may be corrupted or be missing data, or otherwise not in a form that Rosetta can handle.

But do the files play w/o using rosetta when they first download? If so, I'm inclined to go with sberlin, and my advice would be to just not preview stuff.

If u need rosetta every time, giev us some more details on what rosetta does to make the file playable. If you can't make the files playable, tell us about that process too.

Blackbird:

Have you seen the issue for yourself? It's weird, and it bugged me for a long time before I stumbled upon a wise woman on the Apple boards who guided me through.

You get a large, maybe 100 MB mpg file, hit play, and the play bar moves much quicker across the field than it should. Then, if you manually move the playbar to the left, you see parts of the video that did not play during normal playback.

Now, whether Rosetta would work on an incomplete file adds more wrinkles in theory at least. I think Michaellloyd will need to see it work on a complete file that is exhibiting the strange behavior and then try and deduce what is occuring.
Can you apply the Rosetta 'fix' to a file in the process of downloading? Don't know, but I tend to think not. I haven't had it happen to me, so I can't weigh in other than this guessing.
Maybe preview just enough to see if it is a file you are interested in, then wait until you have the whole thing to either play it or try to fix it.

Y'all are over my head with some of the tech talk, but I'll try to answer the questions:

Blackbird & Clueless - Yes, the files play when completely downloaded.

Blackbird - Using "Videolan" I can preview the file and watch it when complete. This does not include using "Rosetta" .
What is really nice about "Videolan" as well is that you can drag a scroll bar in the controls window that will take you right to the last part of the movie that has been downloaded. Also cool, using "Open File" and "Recent" you can jump directly to the movie without a bunch of clicks.

Clueless - Thanks for the "Rosetta Help" paragraph.

Blackbird & Clueless - I have used "Rosetta" while a file is being downloaded. It takes whatever is there and splits it up into .mpg-1, mpg-2 mpg-3, etc. These files open only in "Rosetta". None of the movie apps I have will open them. I don't know if "Rosetta" having translated or fixed them has had any effect on the original file or not. Since "Videolan" is working so well, I haven't needed to use it to accomplish the original task.

Clueless - Your second paragraph perfectly describes what I have seen. Since "Videolan" is working perhaps "Quicktime" isn't as robust at decoding on the fly.

Hey there.
If the complete file plays, then we are probably back to the original responses. It's not a Rosetta situation or solution. If you ever come across a complete file that acts up, now you'll have a tactic to try.

Another player that does an excellent job handling lots of different codecs is called
MPlayer. Free!!
I also installed Divx 5.0.x, and the mpeg2 codec that Quicktime offers. I have pretty good luck now with QT 6.3, but I still use MPlayer for problem children. QT is not completely there yet, but it is important to Apple, so it will continue to get better.

Good luck with your downloads.

Thanks again, to all.

Well it sounds like you figured out your problem, so sweet. This'll go to the archives for other people with the same problem.