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| Converting 1990s TVOD Mac video files to something current | |
Posted by: LaPorta on 2024-06-03 18:17:25Change .dsk to .img and mount using FuseHFS.That won't work on a period Mac with OS 9. | |
| Posted by: bigmessowires on 2024-06-03 18:26:46 Thanks! I actually don't think I own any machine that will run QuickTime 7 - everything I have is either too old or too new - but I'll try QuickTime 4 under OS 9. The converted video seems to run at about 5 fps. Does it look the same when you viewed the original? | |
Posted by: mikes-macs on 2024-06-03 18:27:29But when I export them to a modern Mac (using an emulated OS 9.0 computer from infinitemac.org), QuickTime Player doesn't recognize the files and won't play them.I think the version of QuickTime on the emulated Mac OS 9 computer will do this once you register it with a Pro key and open up the export options. To batch export files, a simple AppleScript can automate this with saved export setting within QuickTime Player. | |
| Posted by: LaPorta on 2024-06-03 18:30:48 Yes, I was unsure if it was correct, but it does. Plays that way under OS 9 on my PowerTower Pro as well. I can always try an earlier system if you suspect something, but it may have been captured at such a slow framerate due to some old hardware it was imported on. | |
| Posted by: mikes-macs on 2024-06-03 18:36:51 Yes, it appears the video was recorded with low frame rate and specs. If you look at the first screen shot above it reports FPS as 3.82 I wouldn't be surprised if this was an early attempt at capturing VCR content with a slow Mac such as A Mac IIsi with Super Mac Video Spigot or something similar. Perhaps using Mac System 6 or 7. | |
| Posted by: LaPorta on 2024-06-03 18:40:03 I remember our 660av recorded in a similar manner. | |
| Posted by: mikes-macs on 2024-06-03 18:45:30 Can the CD containing the video files be loaded on your modern Mac? If so, that would be the most direct way of importing the files as opposed to going thru the emulator. Using Quicktime Player 7 if you can get it. | |
Posted by: joevt on 2024-06-04 18:27:19That won't work on a period Mac with OS 9.Of course, in Mac OS 9 you would just drag the .img onto the Disk Copy window. In an emulator, you could copy the small disk images onto a big disk image and include the big disk image as a disk or you can have the emulator include all the disks. | |
Posted by: LaPorta on 2024-06-05 02:16:49Of course, in Mac OS 9 you would just drag the .img onto the Disk Copy window.Yes, but Disk Copy won't open those .dsk images. | |
| Posted by: robin-fo on 2024-06-05 02:21:05 Btw you don‘t need QuickTime Pro to convert movies. Just get the MoviePlayer app of QuickTime 2 (?) which contains all/most pro features. | |
Posted by: LaPorta on 2024-06-05 02:45:31Btw you don‘t need QuickTime Pro to convert movies. Just get the MoviePlayer app of QuickTime 2 (?) which contains all/most pro features.Nice! Will it save as an MP4 or DV stream, though? I would think it would predate all of that. | |
| Posted by: robin-fo on 2024-06-05 05:05:26 Probably not. But maybe AVI? It‘s been a long time since I last had a look at it. | |
| Posted by: NJRoadfan on 2024-06-05 06:10:20 No need to recompress. You can retain the QuickTime MOV container and video data as-is. You need to merge the data from the resource fork into the data fork. Once you have a proper MOV container file, modern tools like VLC and ffmpeg should be able to process the files. I don't suggest recompressing due to the low resolution and small size of these files, best to leave them as-is. See: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67873319/merge-mac-resource-fork-into-quicktime-file GitHub - mivk/qt-unfork: Flatten old Quicktime movies which use a separate resource fork for the moov atomFlatten old Quicktime movies which use a separate resource fork for the moov atom - mivk/qt-unfork
github.com
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Posted by: robin-fo on 2024-06-05 07:31:32Nice! Will it save as an MP4 or DV stream, though? I would think it would predate all of that.It will save it as DV! Just tried it using MoviePlayer 2.5 and QuickTime 4 on Mac OS 9.1 | |
Posted by: LaPorta on 2024-06-05 07:33:57No need to recompress. You can retain the QuickTime MOV container and video data as-is. You need to merge the data from the resource fork into the data fork. Once you have a proper MOV container file, modern tools like VLC and ffmpeg should be able to process the files. I don't suggest recompressing due to the low resolution and small size of these files, best to leave them as-is. This is a good point. If you can save as a MOV in a modern format without the resources, that is ideal. | |
| Posted by: bigmessowires on 2024-06-05 07:35:10 I see. So to avoid re-encoding the original video, basically you would use QuickTime 7's "save as self-contained movie" option, rather than converting it to MP4 or AVI. FYI I haven't heard anything more from the school... at the moment I only have one .dmg file containing two videos, and none of the original CDs, I'm not sure what they're expecting at this point. This was helping a friend of a friend, and I'm not clear about the original purpose of it all. | |
Posted by: LaPorta on 2024-06-05 07:38:38I see. So to avoid re-encoding the original video, basically you would use QuickTime 7's "save as self-contained movie" option, rather than converting it to MP4 or AVI. Exactly. | |
| Posted by: mikes-macs on 2024-06-05 09:34:44 Yea, export functions are available in Movie Player 2.5 I experimented with your movie using Compressor from the Final Cut suite and it can export it to just about anything, with options to decompress the entire video and perhaps change from thousands of colors to millions. Then recompress to mov. Maybe increasing the frame rate at the same time. | |
| Posted by: olePigeon on 2024-06-05 11:58:08 I'm a fan of H.264 because almost everything somewhat current has decoders for it these days. Even a Raspberry Pi. So if you end up transcoding it, I'd go with that. | |
Posted by: joevt on 2024-06-05 17:00:00Yes, but Disk Copy won't open those .dsk images.Just drag the .dsk file to the Disk Copy application window. | |
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