# Save in Quicktime-compatible format (not H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) )

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/save-in-quicktime-compatible-format-not-h264-mpeg-4-avc-part-10/75700>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** videoio\
**Created:** [February 3, 2022, 6:00am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/save-in-quicktime-compatible-format-not-h264-mpeg-4-avc-part-10/75700 "2022-02-03T06:00:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![georgematheos](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/georgematheos/32/29885_2.png) [@georgematheos](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/georgematheos)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 6:00am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/save-in-quicktime-compatible-format-not-h264-mpeg-4-avc-part-10/75700/1 "2022-02-03T06:00:39Z")

</div>

When I run

```nohighlight
VideoIO.save(
    "video.mp4", images, framerate=5;
    encoder_options=(crf=23, preset="medium")
)

```

it successfully saves an mp4 video, but it saves it with a codec that Quicktime player is unable to open on my Mac. (Quicktime gives the error “The file isn’t compatible with QuickTime Player.”)

Based on [this webpage](https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/unable-to-play-h264-avc-mp4-in-quicktime-player-10.1747170/), and inspecting the codec of the video using the VLC media player, it looks like the issue is that Quicktime does not support the the `H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10)` format that the video is saved in.

Does anyone know how to tell VideoIO to save a video in a more standard codec? (I am not familiar with codecs, but if I’m understanding, the issue is the “AVC” part.)  
In case it helps, I think that [this page](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5678695/ffmpeg-usage-to-encode-a-video-to-h264-codec-format) may explain how to use FFMPEG to save a video in a suitable format.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sijo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@sijo](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/sijo)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 9:25am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/save-in-quicktime-compatible-format-not-h264-mpeg-4-avc-part-10/75700/2 "2022-02-03T09:25:51Z")

</div>

I don’t think that macrumors post is correct: AVC ist just a name for H.264, see [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Video_Coding).

A common issue with ffmpeg encoded videos is the pixel format: [Why won't video from ffmpeg show in QuickTime, iMovie or quick preview? - Ask Different](https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/166554) . However, with your settings VideoIO should use yuv420p which should work in QuickTime so it would be good to have more information:

What is your VideoIO version?

Can you show the output running `ffprobe video.mp4` in the terminal?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![georgematheos](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/georgematheos/32/29885_2.png) [@georgematheos](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/georgematheos)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 7:47pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/save-in-quicktime-compatible-format-not-h264-mpeg-4-avc-part-10/75700/3 "2022-02-03T19:47:53Z")

</div>

Thanks for the help.  
I am using VideoIO v"0.9.6".

Here is the result of ffprobe:

```julia
georgematheos@Georges-MacBook-Pro testing-george % ffprobe video.mp4
ffprobe version 5.0 Copyright (c) 2007-2022 the FFmpeg developers
  built with Apple clang version 13.0.0 (clang-1300.0.29.3)
  configuration: --prefix=/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/5.0 --enable-shared --enable-pthreads --enable-version3 --cc=clang --host-cflags= --host-ldflags= --enable-ffplay --enable-gnutls --enable-gpl --enable-libaom --enable-libbluray --enable-libdav1d --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopus --enable-librav1e --enable-librist --enable-librubberband --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsrt --enable-libtesseract --enable-libtheora --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvmaf --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxml2 --enable-libxvid --enable-lzma --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-frei0r --enable-libass --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libspeex --enable-libsoxr --enable-libzmq --enable-libzimg --disable-libjack --disable-indev=jack --enable-videotoolbox
  libavutil 57. 17.100 / 57. 17.100
  libavcodec 59. 18.100 / 59. 18.100
  libavformat 59. 16.100 / 59. 16.100
  libavdevice 59. 4.100 / 59. 4.100
  libavfilter 8. 24.100 / 8. 24.100
  libswscale 6. 4.100 / 6. 4.100
  libswresample 4. 3.100 / 4. 3.100
  libpostproc 56. 3.100 / 56. 3.100
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'video.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand : isom
    minor_version : 512
    compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
    encoder : Lavf58.76.100
  Duration: 00:00:04.00, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1096 kb/s
  Stream #0:0[0x1](und): Video: h264 (High 4:4:4 Predictive) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv444p(progressive), 640x480, 1094 kb/s, 5 fps, 5 tbr, 10240 tbn (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name : VideoHandler
      vendor_id : [0][0][0][0]

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sijo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@sijo](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/sijo)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 9:08am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/save-in-quicktime-compatible-format-not-h264-mpeg-4-avc-part-10/75700/4 "2022-02-04T09:08:10Z")

</div>

For some reason your video is encoded using the less-compatible yuv444p pixel format… What’s the type of `images`? (what does `typeof(images)` say?)

You can try the following:

```julia
VideoIO.save(
           "video.mp4", images, framerate=5;
           encoder_options=(crf=23, preset="medium"),
           target_pix_fmt=VideoIO.AV_PIX_FMT_YUV420P
       )

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lawless-m](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/lawless-m/32/30869_2.png) [@lawless-m](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lawless-m)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 11:24am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/save-in-quicktime-compatible-format-not-h264-mpeg-4-avc-part-10/75700/5 "2022-02-04T11:24:43Z")

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I think this catches a lot of people out, not just in Julia.

The default also does not play in Firefox, and FF tells you it is a bad encoding (the error message is deliberately wrong and WontFix), so you fiddle with the encoder options instead of `target_pix_fmt`

Here’s my code to create a Firefox compatible video from still images

```julia
    firstimg = RGB{N0f8}.(load(imgnames[1]))
    open_video_out("$(vfname).$(ftype)", firstimg, framerate=24, target_pix_fmt =VideoIO.AV_PIX_FMT_YUV420P) do writer
        @showprogress "Encoding video frames.." for i in eachindex(imgnames)
           img = RGB{N0f8}.(load(imgnames[i]))
           write(writer, img)
        end
    end

```