[RNLD] Problems with playback of Q4 video fles

[Daryn McKenny]

Keep in mind as well that Zoom continually update firmware. Current version for the Q4 is 1.10

http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/q4/software/

So far we are enjoying our Q4 pretty well with no major problems yet.


Regards

Daryn

Miromaa Aboriginal Language and Technology Centre

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From: Ruth Singer [mailto:ruth.singer at gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, 21 May 2014 8:32 AM
To: Mat Bettinson
Cc: r-n-l-d at lists.unimelb.edu.au
Subject: Re: [RNLD] Problems with playback of Q4 video fles

Hi listers,

I have now tested out my new Q4. I made short recordings using three different video settings.

I have a new Mac running OS 10.9.2 and opened the files in Quicktime 10.3.
Audio setting was WAV 48/16 for all the recordings.

HD1080/30 setting: Video opened and played ok, in sync
HD720/60 setting: Video opened in quicktime and played but no sound, in VLC the sound was ok
HD 720/30:Video opened and played ok, in sync

This was just a quick test of videos a few minutes long. What we can say so far is that the files seem to behave a little erratically.

I also opened and played a file on a recent Windows PC by clicking on it (it probably went into windows media player), the video setting was at the default setting then, as I hadn't changed it yet. I'm not sure what that was.

I'm working with a young speaker in the field who finds it easy to use. So at this stage I will hope for the best, I'm planning to leave it in the field for speakers to use while I'm away.

The Q3HD seems more reliable at the moment,

Ruth

On Tue, May 13, 2014 at 12:18 PM, Mat Bettinson <mat at plothatching.com<mailto:mat at plothatching.com>> wrote:
Stephen,

This: MPEG-4 AVC/ H.264 & AAC

While technically you can put video and audio streams of other codecs into an MP4 container, doing so will give you files with reduced compatibility. H264 also has a bewildering array of options which will also impact upon playback compatibility. One way to try avoid problems like this is to use an encoder or transcoding software and select a compatible 'profile'. Handbrake, for example, has built-in profiles for Apple devices where such profiles set resolution and encoder features to be compatible and visually optimal on those devices. Those profiles tend to result in files that will play on pretty much anything, and you can always slightly modify them such as getting rid of a screen size constraint for mobile devices.

I would say that H264 + AAC is the defacto most supported (modern) file type now, and also has excellent performance. Of course the actual quality delivered very much depends on the bitrate you have chosen. Using the 'quality' setting (often expressed as a percentage) is probably a more intuitive way to get to your desired size/quality trade off than using the actual kbps bitrate settings.

P.S. If you want the genuine jack of all trades ultimate video and audio conversion software, Mediacoder is great option. It also supports the notion of profiles but also has a geekpocaclypse of settings if you need more.

On 13 May 2014 12:18, Stephen Morey <S.Morey at latrobe.edu.au<mailto:S.Morey at latrobe.edu.au>> wrote:
Dear RNLD members,

For those of you considering getting the Q4, I have discovered the following about it.

I have been able to play the video files in real time, with both video and sound synchronically, by two methods:

1) The original .mov file can be played using a player called NewPlayer
2) I re-code the .mov file to .mp4 (using Xmedia Recode in my case) and play the .mp4 which then plays correctly in both KM Player and VLC Media Player.

When recoding to .mp4, the new .mp4 files is around 1/10 the size. XMedia recode offers several different Video Codecs audio codecs and it also offers Audio/Video Synchronisation

Can anyone advise which are best video codecs out of the following"
MPEG-1
MPEG-2
MPEG-4
MPEG-4 AVC/ H.264
Motion JPEG
XviD

And the best audio codecs?
AAC
AC3
MP2
MP3
Vorbis


Stephen Morey
Australian Research Council Future Fellow
Centre for Research on Language Diversity
La Trobe University
Website: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/humanities/about/staff/profile?uname=SMorey

________________________________________
From: Hiram Ring [hiram1 at e.ntu.edu.sg<mailto:hiram1 at e.ntu.edu.sg>]
Sent: 13 May 2014 00:23
To: r-n-l-d at lists.unimelb.edu.au<mailto:r-n-l-d at lists.unimelb.edu.au>
Subject: Re: [RNLD] Problems with playback of video files

Stephen,

  I did some searching and found a website which has a few interesting comments on the Q4 (see below). In light of them and your own, you might try accessing the storage card/device through windows explorer (assuming you're on a PC) and copying the MOV files from the camera directly to your hard drive and backing them up. Then use another piece of software (MPEG Streamclip, for example) to re-code the files from MOV to an MP4 container/extension for editing and playback. Hopefully that will work better - try it with a short clip first, and if it doesn't work, experiment with a different format/extension.Hopefully the new files will be easier to play back and work with on your computer. Let me know if that helps.

Best,
Hiram

> http://kmgoto.jp/public/Q4video.html <
1. Initial Status (Windows 7)
        • ZOOM HandyShare does NOT work with Q4 video. The video freezes. It messes up video/audio synchronization if trimmed. (It still can be used for WAV audio only files.)
        • QuickTime can play this video/audio format but video freezes or plays slow.
        • Windows Media Player -- good video but no audio. It can play PCM 24bit audio in nature but only play 24bit wav file of specific header information. (It worked fine for PCM 24bit after K-lite codec pack was installed.)

_______________
Hiram Ring
PhD Student, Grammatical Description and Documentation
Nanyang Technological University
http://linguistics.hss.ntu.edu.sg

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On May 12, 2014, at 11:45 AM, Stephen Morey wrote:

> Dear RNLD list,
>
> Last week I purchased a Zoom Q4 camcorder so that members of the community could use it in the field.
>
> The recorder creates .mov files.
>
> When playing back the test recordings, the video and audio do not play back in synchrony on either of KM Player or VLC media player. On KM player, the video plays back at about half the speed of the sound, on VLC the video didn't play at all, just a fixed frame and when I tried with Quick Time Player the whole computer froze for 10 minutes.
>
> So what is the best solution for being able to replay recordings properly?
>
> Stephen
>
> Stephen Morey
> Australian Research Council Future Fellow
> Centre for Research on Language Diversity
> La Trobe University
> Website: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/humanities/about/staff/profile?uname=SMorey
>
>



--
Regards,

Mat Bettinson

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