Video Formats
Frameline 47 uses QuickTime as a media engine, & is therefore compatible 'out of the box' with a wide variety of video formats.
Please refer to the Quicktime Website for specific details.
With the installation of additional codecs, Frameline supports Flash, Windows Media & AVI File Playback, but not editing. If you wish to edit or notate files in these formats, you will need to encode or convert them to MPEG-4 or another native Quicktime format.
Converting Files with MPEG Streamclip
MPEG Streamclip is an excellent third part freeware application. Use Streamclip to convert files to .mov or .mp4 file formats without encoding. For your convienience, this application is included in the 'extras' folder of the Frameline installer.
Flash Video & AVI Playback
To enable playback of Flash Video & AVI Video Files, the Perian Codec will need to be installed on your system. The Perian Codec is freeWare.
Click here to download the latest Version. Please note that using the Perian component will slow down the loading of files in the file Window (it takes time to load) For maximum performance from this application do not use any third party Quicktime components.
Windows Media Playback
To enable playback of Windows Media (WMV) Files, the Flip4Mac Codec needs to installed on your system. The Flip4mac Playback only component is available free of charge. Click here to download the latest version.
To encode WMV files to a Quicktime Format from within Frameline (or from any other Quicktime application that supports export) you will need to purchase Flip4Mac WMV Player Pro.
MPEG-2 Playback & Editing
To enable playback & editing of MPEG-2 Video Files, the Apple Quicktime MPEG-2 component will need to be installed on your system. This component is available for a fee from the Quicktime Website.
Apple iTunes Store DRM Files
Unfortunately Frameline cannot playback protected video files purchased from the iTunes Store. This is due to restrictions in the Quicktime & OS X development frameworks. If Apple decide to enable third party playback of these files, this functionality will be reflected in a forthcoming release of the software.
HDV
High definition video files that are Quicktime compatible can be viewed in Frameline just like in any other Quicktime based application, however you will need a fast processor to watch these files without dropping frames (stuttering) during playback.
File from HDV camcorders may have a '.m2t' file extension, and these files are not currently Quicktime compatible. To use these files within Frameline you will need to convert them to a native Quicktime format. Luckily there is a free application that can enable this conversion quickly, and without requiring the files to be re-encoded (and therefore reducing quality) You can download the free application StreamClip directly from this link. Once downloaded, launch StreamClip, then open the file/s you wish to convert, then choose 'convert to MPEG' this will then create the same file in a .mpeg 'wrapper'. All the data you wish to retained will be retained, and the file/s can now be used in frameline.
If you are intending to edit your HDV footage within Final Cut Pro, you would be advised to convert the .m2t files within Final Cut Pro. Please refer to the Final Cut Pro documentation for more details.
Video Files without Extensions
A File's extension, for example .mp4. or .mov, tell the operating system which application to use to open the file. Some older video files, like those from Mac OS 9 or Windows, may not have these extensions. Frameline will only show video files without extensions that are on the local hard-disk; that is the hard-disk that hosts the operating system. Video files without extensions on all other disks will not be shown by the application.
We are working on creating a utility to locate and convert such files, but in the meantime you will need to manually (using the Finder) locate these files and give them extensions so as to enable the application to recognise them if they are on an external disk.
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