Quick Time v. Windows Media Player

[puddytat2tn]

I have a digital Kodak camera that I took some videos with. It will only let me download to Apple Quick Time. When I try to play them with Windows Media Player 12 which is my default, all you hear is sound, no video. I tried to save them in Quick Time, but it will not allow me because it wants me to BUY the better version and I'm not doing that. I just want to save these videos in Windows Media. Also, when I tried to e-mail them to family and friends, it said they were too big (windows live mail). Can anyone offer suggestions onf if I can get these to view on Windows Media Player and how I can e-mail them. It says I need to make them smaller, but I don't know how to do that. Thanks to whoever responds. I tried to attach a copy of my video/movie, but I don't think it worked.

 

[TrainableMan]

Video conversion and resizing tools are very diverse and can run from free to quite expensive.

Neither .mov nor .wmp are very common formats any more. Most videos shared are either .avi or .mkv.

I use a paid conversion program but there is an old post HERE that has a section called Audio/Video Format Conversion Program which might offer a freeware solution.

Or simply type "Convert .mov to .wmp" or "Convert .mov to .avi" into a search engine and find lots of ideas and products.

Sometimes yet another product may be needed to shrink the filesize; this is generally done by lowering the video quality or the screen size.

 

[Ace]

Most video's are actually .avi, or .mp4 from what i've experienced. mp4 is used in lots of scenarios. You shouldn't need to download any garbage video conversion tool though. Just get a windows codec that allows you to play the certain video file that is formatted for your camera.

I'd suggest the K-lite codec pack, as i've been the most successful with it for years, and it also seems to be faster than most other codecs. I've had DivX Pro codecs, and even they didn't compare to the free K-lite pack out there.

You can't run both though, you'll end up with conflicts, uninstall all other codecs, and you'll only ever really need the K-lite codec pack... Plays everything from .mp4, to .mkv, to .mov, etc... Never had any problems with a filetype.

 

[TrainableMan]

Agreed I do get some .mp4s as well, so .avi, .mkv, and .mp4 are probably the most common containers.

And. like Ace, I also use K-Lite (Standard) to supply my codec needs or there is also CCCP as and alternative. With either of these (do not install both) you should be able to play .mov files as well as all other common codecs.

Still, in order to make the files smaller I would try some conversion or re-rendering program to make files you can email to friends (typically you should keep the files under 10Mb and some mail systems may even require attachments of only 1 or 2Mb). And I would use a common container like .avi or .mp4 rather than .mov or .wmp. (.mkv is normally used for higher quality and will result in huge file sizes which will likely be a problem to email).

 

[clifford_cooley]

I could probably get by with the standard version but its the full version I always install.

 

[TrainableMan]

I prefer the VLC player so I never install the K-Lite player that comes with the Full version; in fact I have made VLC my default over WMP. And VLC actually includes most codecs already built-in so do not even need K-Lite for it to work with most video files.

 

[Ace]

I've heard many good things about VLC, as it's compatibility is fairly high. I've also used a program called VirtualDub (I believe it's called) which is great for shrinking Avi video file formats.

Created a few 5GB uncompressed video files in AE , and I think VirtualDub decreased that amount to somewhere in the MB range, below 1GB. That was back when I didn't understand how to use codecs to compress my output though. And this also will only work for Avi formats, nothing else.