Problem playing movie file

[eugedunn]

Good Afternoon to everyone
Hope everybody is fine.

If this following Question is not appropiate.
Then just erase it all, and i will understand.

Operation could not be completed
(OSStatus error-50.

What does it mean
                                                                         Plume
                                                            Have a very good day
                                         The Weather is very hot but i'm not complainning

[Dan Millar]

Hi Plume,

All by itself, it means nothing. If you get this error, what are you doing when it happens? This will give us a lot more insight into what is causing this error.

From the MacError.h header file:  "paramErr = -50,  /*error in user parameter list*/"

That tells us that something is probably wrong with a preference file in your user folder, but not which one, or that the application you're using has a bug, is incompatible, or badly written, or etc., etc.

More info?

Happy Mac'ing

Dan

[eugedunn]

Good Evening Dan
I'm always leary as to ask for information that i am not allowed to ask.
But i will include all that i was doing and keep my fingers crossed that you do not get upset with me.
I was trying to download a program from another sight, and i got the following message.
And i repeat, if you find it in yourself not answer, i will definitly understand
So here goes
The actual message is as follows.
The Movie could not be open
Operation could not be completed
(OSStatus error-50-)
And again i will repeat i will not be offended if you chose not to Help.
                                                       Thank you again for your Help
                                                          Have a good night
                                                                 Plume

[Dan Millar]

Dear Plume,

There are no questions you are not allowed to ask, so feel free. As a wise man once said, the only dumb question is the one you never ask. Or, as another wise guy said - "there are no stupid questions, but there are plenty of stupid answers"

1) What program are you using to open the Movie?, and, 2) what format is the movie file?

The format is given by reading the three-letter extension after the movie's file name, i.e. Movie.mov - "mov" tells us it is a quicktime movie, "mp4" is an MPEG4, etc., we first need to know what kind of file it is you're attempting to open.

Happy Mac'ing!

Dan

[eugedunn]

Good Day Dan
I am ecstatic with the response that you have given me, you have actually made my day.
Sorry if i sound like Swarznegger.
I have downloaded other movies but have not encountered this special comment.
I have used and have always used the same format which is as follows (.avi).
Have i been using the wrong format ?
What i do not understand is that it shows by the amount of Megabytes that the movie did download fully.
But This Window opens up with the following comment: [The Movie could not be open
                                                                                      Operation could not be completed
                                                                                       (OSStatus error-50-)                   )
The Version of Quicktime that i am using is 7.6.6
                                         Thank you kindly for your help
                                          Have a great day
It would be alright if i had a weight problem, i would be able to lose a few pounds with this heat.
Mind you i'm not complainning.
This is a good time to send a message to Dan Millar (So have a really great day Dan)
                                                         Thank you again
                                                                 Plume                                         

[eugedunn]

To all that as read the message that i posted
I did say, if the message is not appropiate i will understand.
I should not have said that, for it meant that i am waiting, maybe for an answer
or not.
Which makes the waiting one heck of a long time
So i am keeping my fingers crossed, that you did not take me seriously
And i do get an answer either way.

                                             Thank you for reading this
                                     We are having one heck of a heat wave
                           It is always a pleasure to be able to address you'se all
                                            Have a very good evening
                      By all means do not forget the people whom are precious to you
                                                           Plume

[Dan Millar]

Hi Plume,

Sorry I didn't respond quicker, I was away for a few days - too hot to compute.

I'm still not sure where your problem is coming from, but I have a question/suggestion. Quicktime supports some .avi formats - .avi is actually a container type, not a format in itself, and so can contain various bits that the Quicktime .avi filter cannot read, particularly Windows Media Video or .wmv formatted video.

If there's one thing you need on your Mac nearly as much as Flash, it's Flip4Mac from Telestream. Do you have it? If you do, then you may have to reset your quicktime preferences. If you don't, please download it from here:

http://dynamic.telestream.net/downloads/download-flip4macwmv.htm

Install it, and try again to open the file which was giving you an error. If all is well, well then, all is well! If not, like I said, you may need to throw out your Quicktime preferences - the system will rebuild the file for you, and again, all should be well. You can find your QT prefs file on your Mac located here (where ~ means your "home" folder in the /Users folder):

Users/~/Library/Preferences/QuickTime Preferences
Users/~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.quicktime.plugin.preferences.plist
Users/~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.quicktimeplayer.plist

Good Luck, and let us know how it goes,

Happy Mac'ing

Dan

[z-mac]

If VLC can't play the video file, then it's a strange bird indeed:

http://www.videolan.org/

[eugedunn]

Good Morning Dan
Is it not a terrible thing sometime, when you are in demand.
And you are in demand,you have become very popular.
I have to be careful not to give you to many compliments, it might go to your head,  Ha! Ha! Ha!.
Hope you know i'm just kidding.
I went to the website and downloaded the upgrade and installed the WMV.
I also went to the library looking for what you had suggested.

PreferencePanes
QuickTimeXPref.prefPane
avc1DecoderPane.prefPane
LockTight.prefPane
Perian.prefPane


If this is what you mean, could you then specify which of these you want me to thrash.
                                                                    Thank you again
                              Sorry to have disturbed your time off everyone is deserving of that
                                               A hug for your loved ones they deserve it
                                                      Have a very good day Dan
                                                                  Plume
                                                                   

[Dan Millar]

Pardon me for not asking one question which may have cleared this up pronto.

Do you have Snow Leopard, and, if you do, did you install QuickTime 7?

It would appear from your list of preferences that you have the shinier, newer QuickTime X, which has some limitations and does NOT work with Flip4Mac. So, once more you need to download and install some more software. See these notes from Apple:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3678

and download it from here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL923

Fear not Plume, a lot of people, myself included, were caught off-guard by this change, so your question may have helped others with the same problems.

It looks like you have or had Perian installed at one time or another - was or is this your "Player"? Perian extends QTPlayer quite a bit, and plays nice with Snow Leopard, but make sure you have updated it to version 1.2.1 here:

http://perian.org/#download

Z-mac has also mentioned VLC - the mighty mouse of media players on the Mac. If you don't have it, get it. If VLC cannot play a file, you can be certain it's the file and not the player that is at fault.

Well, you have a wealth of options, let's see if any of these get your movie to play...

Happy Mac'ing!

Dan

[eugedunn]

Hello again
I am confused , what else is new.
I drag the Movie over the VLC Icon, and the Mo vie then open up.
But it told me the folowing.
Codec Error
Use Window Media Player
And then another message opened up and then said as follows
Aborting Video redirecting to Microsoft Codec
Download Page
www.universalstudio.com
I then tried to go to that website, only to be told that Could not be found .
Please check the name again.
( I am lost again.
                                                       Thank you for patience
                                                                Plume

[z-mac]

I drag the Movie over the VLC Icon, and the Mo vie then open up.

Plume, try this:
= double click VLC to open it
= in VLC's File menu, click File, then click Open File
= use the Browse button to select the video file
= tell us what VLC says when you try to play the file

A video contains images and sound, as you know. The way the images and sound are encoded depends on the tool or tools used to encode them. To play a video, you need to have the right *decoding* tools.

Some decoding tools are free and some are not. Microsoft invented the WMV encoding. WMV is an example of what I will call the Microsoft Philosophy. WMV causes difficulties for people who aren't using MS Windows.

In general, it's best for Mac users (and Linux users too) to avoid WMV files. Try to find a version of the video that does not use WMV.

[eugedunn]

Good Morning z-mac
I double clicked on the VLC Icon and a window open up.and then went to the file and chose open file.
I then chose the Browse Button to select the video but i could not choose the file as it would not Hightlite.
So i closed the browse window and drag the file into the VLC window instead.
I pressed the arrow to make work, and it did but the little arrow a the bottom went about 50 miles an an
hour, the picture message that it gave me is as follows (www.universalstudios.com ).
Went to that website but all that there was is Avertisement.
I have always used the following format .avi and except for two or three time that i got the following message
( Operation could not be completed
OSStatus error-50-)
I am very curious to find what is causing this type of window to open up

                                    I am willing to try anything else that you can suggest.
                                                      Thank you again for your time
                                                              Have a great day
                                                                  Plume
My Computer is as follows
Mac OS X
Version 10.5.8
Processor  Dual 2 GHz Power PC G5
Memory 4 GB DDR SDRAM
Startup Disk MacIntosh
                                                                     Plume
                                                       

[z-mac]

Here is a list of everything that VLC *will* play:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html

The reason why you can't play your AVI is that there is something inside it that is requires a proprietary decoder. (As Dan explained, AVI is just a "container".) If you want to share the video with us (upload it to Gigasize, for example), we can tell you exactly what is causing the problem.

Don't post the link here, but you can send it to us by e-mail or personal message.

[Dan Millar]

Hi Plume,

Missing Microsoft codec (CODer-DECoder - you see?)?

Flip4Mac provides this codec through the QuickTime system, while VLC uses its own codecs (well, they're from the venerable FFMPEG project) to handle WMV files. Flip4Mac ONLY works with QuickTime 7 - not the Quicktime X (say "ten") that is installed with Snow Leopard. If you installed QuickTime 7 when you installed Snow Leopard, then you should have TWO QuickTime Players - QuickTime X Player will be in your Applications folder, while QuickTime 7 will be in the Utilities folder. Weird, eh?

It seems a default installation, ie. no options selected, of Snow Leopard does NOT install QuickTime 7. However, you can still install it from your Snow Leopard disk's Optional Install folder.

Make sure you have QT7 and Flip4Mac installed, then try the same thing z-mac has suggested, only with QT7. So:
1. Open QuickTime Player 7 from your Utilities folder.
2. Choose Open... from the File menu.
3. Select the file that has been "uncooperative"
4. tell us what QT7 does

Okay? See you soon...

Happy Mac'ing!

Dan