Another newbie who can't get the MPEGs to play

[David H-P]

Firstly I'm using an iMac OSX 10.2.8 with Quicktime 6.5.2

Lime wire downloads seem to be fine - I'm aware that a full movie is going to be about 700Mb so I've downloaded short clips to start with but every time I try to preview or play the movie I get this message
"Couldn't open the file ".......mpg" because it is not a file that QuickTime understands"

Any help would be appreciated

[murasame]

It reminds me of me when I encountered the very same message and started looking all over the net for a solution (I checked this place on a whim and found the answer here...). Ah the memories...

But I digress...

Click here: VLC and dld and install VLC. It will play most everything (except .avi which contain WMV3 but AFAIK there is no known player which plays that kind of .avi for Macs )
Also get this: Mplayer is another nifty player. It's interface isn't very good IMO but it's codec support is better than VLC (I mainly use VLC though)
These should get you by.

[David H-P]

Thanks v much - VLC works well

I'm not a Techi but am curious to know why a media player such as QuickTime that usually can handle MPEG files with no problems, can't handle the MPEGs that are downloaded from Lime Wire.

Is there a simple explanation?


David H-P

[murasame]

It's not that it cannot handle them. It's just that it lacks the codecs as it is to play them (that, or the vids you dlded are corrupt).
I have come across some like these which either VLC will play or, if they are too corrupt, Mplayer will do it.
The codecs can or can't be found, either from Apple or from third parties but I think that VLC is better because I'm too lazy to go codec-hunting on the net. Of course, the interface of VLC isn't nearly as fast as QT's (or Mplayer's for that matter) but every player offers some features that the other doesn't.