Millisecond Forums

Hi,

Does anyone know whether there is a way to automatically play a video that is in iTunes? I've managed to play a Windows Media player video using the following:

<video Video>
/items = ("Video.mp4")
/playthrough = true
</video>

But it won't work for iTunes videos. Anyone know how I can fix this?
Thanks so much for your help!

Helen

If a certain type of video does not play, it means that your system does not have a suitable codec available that Inquisit can use to render said video file. Inquisit needs a proper DirectShow codec to do that. You can acquire such codecs from the web, in most cases installing a codec pack such as K-Lite ( http://www.codecguide.com ) should be enough.

Thanks for your help Dave!
I've downloaded the K-lite pack now but it's still not letting me open my iTunes video via Inquisit... Is there anything else I need to do with the codec? Do I have to convert the video or anything? It's currently an mp4 file...
Thanks!!

#1: It is unclear what you exactly mean by "iTunes video". The video file you are talking about has the file extension *.mp4. MP4 is a container format, i.e., the extension alone does not tell you (or me) which codecs the file was actually encoded with (there are many possibilities). If the video uses some kind of DRM, it is very well possible that it cannot be played back in anything *but* iTunes. It may or may not be possible to convert it in this case. If conversion is an option, convert it to either WMV (for Windows compatibility) or MPEG-2.

#2: At the risk of stating the obvious: Merely *downloading* a codec pack (here: K-Lite) is not enough. The codec pack must also be *installed* on the system (i.e., execute the setup file you downloaded). It's unclear from "I've downloaded the K-lite pack now..." whether you've done that or not, hence I'm pointing it out for the sake of completeness.

#3: When you specify

<video Video>
/items = ("Video.mp4")
/playthrough = true
</video>

Inquisit expects to find a file called "Video.mp4" in the same location as the script. If the file is located somewhere else or called differently, Inquisit cannot open it.

#4: Finally, "it's still not letting me open my iTunes video via Inquisit" is also somewhat unclear. What exactly is the error message and have you made sure that the video is located where it's supposed to be (#3 abvove)?

Ah ok, thanks Dave! I think it must only be able to play using iTunes - I've downloaded (and installed) the k-lite, the video file is in the same location as the script, and I've tried to convert the video to wmp , all without success.
I don't get an error message, it just bleeps and presents a white screen. So I think it's probably to do with it only being able to play in iTunes...
Thanks anyway for your help :-)

Thanks for the additional details.

> I don't get an error message, it just bleeps and presents a white screen.

Is e.g. Windows Media Player (or any other player for that matter, such as VLC) able to play back the file or is iTunes the only program that can? The reason I'm asking is because "bleep and white screen" is unfortunately inconclusive: Could either be due to lacking a proper codec or due to the file being DRM-protected.

(You seem to indicate that conversion to a different format failed as well; that would tilt me towards DRM being the reason. However, I of course don't know where that video came from in the first place, e.g. purchased / downloaded through the iTunes store, etc.)