Can I create MP4 files?

[Kate davies]

So, I need to create video files in anything but .mov. Is there an app that will record to an MP4 format? Or is there something in settings to get the camera to record in a different format?

I just downloaded something that called itself MP4 cMera, but it wrote to a .mov file.

Basically the problem is that I have updated windows (yes I know but I cannot move to Mac for other reasons) and windows8.1 cannot cope with .mov files in any way without crashing. It cannot even look in a directory where they reside without crashing.

As there are a lot of people with this same problem, I would be grateful for any help.

 

[giradman]

Hello and welcome to the forum! I cannot provide an immediate answer but please provide some more information to help others to respond: 1) Which iPad are you using (your post is in the iPad 4 forum); 2) What iOS is installed; and 3) Are you wanting to record videos w/ the iPad? Dave

 

[Kate davies]

Hi

I am using iPad 4 and the latest os version updated Sunday.

And I wish to record videos on the iPad in a different format from .mov. I know I can convert to MP4 afterwards but this takes too long and doubles the disk space needed.

Any help appreciated

 

[twerppoet]

I'm not certain, but this is what I suspect.

Like a lot of the other camera features, most of what happens is powered by a combination of hardware, firmware, and some system level iOS code. This makes it very fast. A third party video app that encoded directly to mp4 would pretty much have to implement it from scratch, with a huge cost in processor overhead.

Which is why I suspect you're not going to find the app you want. It's more efficient to record in the native .mov format, then export to other formats as needed. Especially since there are 'probably' fast native API's for converting to mp4.

I was playing around with the iMovie app and discover something odd. You can view and export movies that are in the Photos app in iMovie's Videos tab. When I exported a short movie to most apps, I got a .mov file. However, when I sent a movie via Mail, it was attached as an mp4 file.

Obviously this is impractical for anything but short clips, but the speed and ease of this export seems to support my guesses about how things are handled.

Like I said, I'm only making guesses here. I hope you can prove me wrong.

That or find a Quicktime/mov fix for your Windows machine. Keep an eye on Apple's site for Quicktime updates, is all I can suggest on that front.

Good luck.

 

[Kate davies]

Thank you for this. You know a heck of a lot more than me so I trust your suspicions, they sound logicL.

I will try downloading the iMovie app. I'll keep you posted.

Have a great day and thanks again.

 

[twerppoet]

No problem.

I wasn't really trying to recommend the iMovie app as a solution. There are probably better ones out there for your needs, even if they are just conversion/export apps.

 

[Kate davies]

Well yes. I have a conversion app which works ok but takes ages and doubles the space needed for any videos. I just though I would maybe try imovies and see how that went as you know it emails MP4 files.

 

[twerppoet]

Another thought is that you can just convert them after you copy them to the computer. I've heard HandBrake recommended many times for video conversion on Macs, and I believe there is a Windows version.

There is a good chance you could use the app. I did a little research and the problem appears to be with a Windows update that reads the meta-data incorrectly. Selecting the file from inside a dialog box in an app might bypass that. Or you could just try opening the player you want, and using the Open File menu item instead of launching the file from Explorer.

I don't know if this will work. But it might help.

The article I read recommended un-intalling a particular update. Or waiting for Microsoft to fix this 'known' issue. Here's the link to the discussion and the recommended, temporary, solutions.

https://social.technet.microsoft.co...-iphone-movies-mov-files?forum=w8itproinstall

Edit: Posted this before I saw your last responce.

 

[twerppoet]

Well yes. I have a conversion app which works ok but takes ages and doubles the space needed for any videos. I just though I would maybe try imovies and see how that went as you know it emails MP4 files.

Should work well enough for short ones. If you do try it, please let us know how it works. Having a Mac, I've no way of testing it myself.

 

[Kate davies]

Wow. You are my christmas angel.

This is a great idea. My pc is currently in the shop as the guy that came out had no idea what was going on and took it home as it was getting late. He is installing more ram also. He tried uninstalling this one particular update but has not been able to. So until the bug is fixed you may have provided me with a great work around. . I will try this out when the pc and I are back in the office tomorrow.

Thanks you very much indeed.

 

[twerppoet]

No problem. I hope it works.

 

[Kate davies]

Handbrake was a work of genius my friend. You truly deserve the status 'ipad legend'

 

[twerppoet]

No problem. Just passing on what other's have said. I don't use Handbrake myself.

 

[Kate davies]

So. Further information for anyone who may be suffering this problem. I managed to convert the .mov files to MP4 with handbrake. It only crashed a few times . But when rendering to a wmv file, it took around 20 hours to render a 15 minute film. Rendering to MP4 was done in real time though. So my advice would be do not try to use a windows format.
It seems that windows will now not handle an apple format, and cannot write to a windows format either.

Well done windows. Stunning work.

 

[twerppoet]

Thanks for the update.