Hello everyone,
I saw many people posted a similar topic and I read the answers, but unfortunately I still cannot open .mov videos in ELAN. On one of my Windows-PCs it works smoothly, but on the other I always get this error notification (see below
Thanks a lot in advance,
Marta
Hello Marta,
The best approach is probably to convert the .mov files to .mp4 (maybe consult this encoding guide) and replace them via Edit->Linked Files .
Alternatively you could install the VLC media player and see if the videos then work (well enough) in ELAN.
Finally you could try this: in the ELAN installation folder, in the app sub-folder, there is a file named elan.properties. Open this in a text editor, locate the line:
#JMMFPlayer.ForceForAllFileTypes=true
remove the leading # sign, save the file and (re-)launch ELAN. Maybe the .mov files then work in ELAN (by the JMMFPlayer, which is based on Microsoft Media Foundation).
-Han
Thank you very much! Indeed, the only solution that worked was that of converting the .mov files to .mp4.
Best,
Marta
Hello. I was having an issue similar to Marta’s. I converted the MOV file to MP4, and now ELAN opens it, but I only get a blue screen where the video was supposed to be. I looked at the encoding guide, but I can’t change the .mp4 file properties. I don’t know what to do and I’m facing problems due to deadlines. Could anyone please help me? Thank you very much.
Hello,
The recommended settings of the encoding guide can or should be applied when converting files. It is not possible to change the .mp4 properties without re-encoding (in case that is what you tried).
So maybe you can convert a .mov to .mp4 again with the settings mentioned in the guide (but maybe that is what you tried but weren’t able to apply the settings)?
You don’t mention how you converted the .mov files but usually HandBrake gives good results (and is maybe more user friendly than e.g. ffmpeg on the command line).
-Han
I was using an online tool, which simply converts the file. I saw no encoding guidelines at all. I downloaded HandBrake, opened it and it said I needed to download .NET. I did. Reopened HandBrake, and it says it cannot convert my file. Please help me.
Ah, I didn’t try HandBrake on Windows yet, assumed that it supports .mov. You don’t happen to have access to a Mac somehow or somewhere? That would be the easiest option.
I just checked conversion of a .mov with FFmpeg on Windows and that seems to work, at least with the simple:
ffmpeg -i file_name.mov file_name.mp4
Success may depend on the actual encoding of the .mov. Some people use VLC player for conversion (but that also doesn’t always work well).
ffmpeg just says “No such file or directory”. I am not sure that I am doing the right thing. After all, I had to download ffmpeg, and 7-zip, and then do a bunch of things, and then “open powershell”. I do think I followed the instructions correctly, though. VLC did convert the file, but ELAN doesn’t open the mp4 (see below). Should I give up? Thank you for your assistance, though, I do appreciate it.
Hmm, that’s quite disappointing, it should be possible to get some other messages from ffmpeg if the file path is correct. Maybe you can send some more details to me by email (han.sloetjes AT mpi.nl), then we can see if we can get that working.
Do you have many files to convert? Maybe I can try to convert a few for you if it is possible to share those files. To see if they then work in your ELAN. There are a few cases where users see the blue screen on some pc and not on others (with the same files), so it is not always the case that there is something wrong with the file.
The one from your screenshot really seems incorrect.
