I have a new Nikon Digital Camera that outputs .mov video clips, which are SUPPOSED to be played on Quicktime. I hate Quicktime, iTunes and you have to have both. So I installed Digital Media Converter which does a good job of converting the offensive Quicktime files. Once I verified the quality of the conversion (good enough for me) I uninstalled Quicktime & iTunes. But now DMC won't convert the MOV files anymore. Apparantly, Quicktime has to be installed in order to even convert their crappy files. f*****' Quicktime... Now it's a war. I want to use my camera to take video clips, and I want this nasty Quicktime & iTune software off my computer. First it occurs to me that I might be able to just get the "official" Quicktime codec (without the whole software "suite"), but don't know enough about video to do it. Then I wonder if there are some 3rd Party codecs that might do the job, but again, I don't know how to do this. Could someone help me please ? Thanks in advance, Billy
I know this codec pack has a quick time alternative but I dont know if DMC will recognise it http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_Lite_Mega_Codec_Pack.htm
I don't know what the technical spec's of the files are. All I know is that I did a bit of research and discovered that "Quicktime" is the "official" format for Nikon video clips. When I download the clips to my computer (via USB) they will not play with Windows Media Player (which I prefer, as I am a "basic user" and do not need anything more "exotic"). However, the installation of k-lite has been a fairly pleasant experience. I took the default settings on install (there were a LOT of options). While the default media player seems to be "real player", and there seems to be a lot (maybe all) of the file associations have been defaulted to it (instead of WMP, which I'd rather have), the main point of this was to get the ability to convert MOV files (Quicktime) to something that didn't require Quicktime to play them. (This will also help in being able to share these files with other people that also do not have & do not want Quicktime installed on their computer.) What's interesting is that there are still what appears to be a few "remnants" of Quicktime around. The icons of the MOV still have an image of a "modified" Quicktime logo, but double-clicking them causes RealPlayer to launch & play them just fine. And there are some "Quicktime" configuration menus I have seen, which seem to offer a broad range of tweaks (including the ability to "update" "Quicktime"). These menus look almost exactly like the Quicktime menus used to look like, but I don't have to look at the QT taskbar icon. I am wondering, is this really "Quicktime", some modification of the official software or a true 3rd party software that only has the images of Quicktime associated with it. Also, what are the rules/legalities involved here ? I don't care, personally, and would continue to use it even if it were "illegal". It's my camera, and I believe my right to use it's output without being encumbered with this crappy Quicktime software supercede's any claim of "their" codec being "propriatary". In short, my right to use my data is legally stronger than their attempt to limit my data's usability. But I am still curious. Anyways philraz, I would like to thank you for your fast and very useful help, and consider this problem to be fully solved. Again, thank you. Billy
Think you mean Media Player Classic. QuickTime Alt as I understand it installs QuickTime's codecs, Media Player Classic and Cyberlink's dshow quicktime wrapper filter for other players (MPC can access QT's codecs directly). Neither Quicktime Alt or Real Alt would be legal, however Apple and Real don't seem to care, otherwise they would be doing something about it. Newer versions of MPC have an internal mp4/mov parser, you need to have compatible decoders installed though for it to work. It will however allow you to play say a mpeg4/aac/AVC mov via ffdshow with lower CPU usage than QT's own decoders.
