[MPlayer-users] Re: Quicktime: "No 'moov' atom could be found"

[Erik Slagter]

> AVI has its problems, but MPEG program streams are much more limited in 
> what they can contain. I've never heard of anyone putting MPEG-4 video 
> in them. What I've wondered is why there isn't more interest in using 
> Quicktime or its derivative, the MPEG-4 container. Those certainly have 
> their detractors, but Quicktime seems to be quite flexible and capable. 
> Of course there's also Matroska, which seems to be based on sound 
> principles and planning, but it's largely unknown and will probably 
> remain that way for quite a while.

The common opinion (at least on this list) seems to be that MP4 (the
file format) sucks, apparently because it is derived from Quicktime.

Apparently that is enough reason to stick with a broken, proprietary
format.

Anyway everytime it bring this up people laugh at me, so I gave up.

> I don't personally have enough specific knowledge of container format 
> internals to form strong opinions about their strengths and weaknesses. 
> Usability and ubiquity will depend more on the tools than the format 
> details anyway. That's why AVI is so popular: there are many useful tools.

Which are not quite compatible with each other. So far the usefulness
;-)

BTW as far as I know there is no way to put a mpeg4 ES into a mpeg1 TS
and let the decoder know there is mpeg4 inside :-( At least I have not
seen any program supporting encoding or decoding such a thing.