Create iTunes-viewable movies from certain sources

May 20, '05 09:43:00AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

This worked for me in getting movies into iTunes 4.8's new video library. This is also a way of playing movies in full screen without bothering with QuickTime Pro. The iTunes 4.8 upgrade adds the ability to drag and drop movies into the Library, but it doesn't accept all of the QuickTime supported types. For instance, I could get MP4 and MOV files to be accepted, but both 3GP and AVI were rejected. This hint worked well on the 3GP file, but not so well for the DiVX-encoded AVI (that could due to the speed of the computer).

First make sure that the normal QuickTime Player is able to play your file -- if it can't, iTunes won't either. Next, you need to download the MakeRefMovieX tool [113KB download] from the QuickTime Development web site. Basically, we're going to make an alias to the movie we want to play in a format that iTunes will accept. After downloading, open the MakeRefMovieX application.

When the application loads, it asks for a filename. This is the file you will drag into iTunes and the name will be used for the entry in the Library. Give the file the .mov extension. Select Add URL... from the Movie menu. Don't use Add Movie..., and don't click Browse, because it's likely your movie will be grey and unselectable. You now have two choices -- if you want to keep the original movie where it is, type the full path to the movie file and click OK. If you want to store the movie with your iTunes Library (note that iTunes won't know to delete/move the file if you rearrange artists, etc.), then just type the name of the file with no path. I left the other settings of MakeRefMovieX alone.

Click Save from the File menu. You should now be able to double-click the new .mov file in the Finder to load QuickTime Player, and the movie should play. If not, make sure the path in MakeRefMovieX is correct. If you chose not to put the path in, make sure the original movie and the .mov file are in the same folder and try again.

Now you should be able to drag and drop the new .mov file into iTunes. If you didn't put the full path in the movie, you need to move (or copy) the original movie so it is in the same folder as the iTunes copy of the .mov file. Using Finder, drag the movie into your Library. Your movie will be in Unknown Artist/Unknown Album or a similar name, and the library is usually in Music/iTunes/Library in your home folder. The movie should shortly appear in the Library with a camera icon next to it. Double-click it to play it. Note that there is a full-screen button on the bottom of the window; click on it to play full screen (this can be made default in the Preferences).

Note that I made iTunes 'beach-ball' by doing this because it went through and attempted to 'analyse the song volume' and so forth, but I am using a G3 iMac 333, so you might be better off than me. Another side effect of this 'reference movie' approach is that your movies can be stored on a CD or DVD. The movie tracks will be silently skipped if the CD is not inserted. You could create a playlist for each disk.

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