Vernier Tech Info Library TIL #1394

Question

Why won\'t Logger Pro play my movie?

Answer

Sometimes Logger Pro will either refuse to insert a video, or once inserted, fail to play it properly. In the former case, this is due to an incompatible file format, and in the latter, the video is encoded using a codec not available on your computer.

Some background:

For a movie file to be opened by Quicktime (and hence in Logger Pro) it must be in a compatible format (such as .avi or .mov) and be encoded in a compatible codec.

A codec is a software component capable of performing encoding and decoding of audio and video data for the purpose of compression. For your computer to read a movie, the corresponding codecs must be installed.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codec for an explanation.

A container is a file format used to store multimedia information. Most popular containers are MPEG, MOV and AVI. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_format_%28digital%29 for more on file formats.

Logger Pro supports all movie formats and codecs that are compatible with QuickTime. For a complete list of which file types this includes, please visit:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/player/specs.html

The only common video format not supported by QuickTime or Logger Pro is Microsoft�s Windows Media format, which usually have ".WMV" file types. Here is a way to convert the WMV file to a format that is compatible with QuickTime.

1) Open Windows Movie Maker.
2) The Movie Maker may show movie files in the Movie Timeline shown at the bottom of the screen. Delete any movies displayed there.
3) Pull down the File menu and choose Import into Collection. Import the file you would like to use in Logger Pro.
4) The file will appear in the Collection, which is shown in the middle of the screen.
5) Click and drag your movie from the Collection into the Timeline.
6) In the Movie Tasks on the left of the screen, you will see that Step 3 is Finish Movie. Click on that step to reveal substeps taken to finish the movie.
7) Click the substep that says "Save to my computer".
8) Fill in the fields with appropriate information and click Next.
9) On the next screen, labeled �Movie Setting", click the "Other settings" radio button. (If necessary, click the field labeled "Show More Choice".
10) Pull down the list of settings and choose "DV-AVI (NTSC)". Click Next.
11) The movie will now be saved in an AVI format and you can insert it into Logger Pro.
12) In the future when you capture a movie, follow the above steps to create a compatible file.

Note: Windows Movie Maker saves AVI files in a 720x480 pixel format, which will distort videos saved in the standard 4:3 aspect ratio. Such videos will be acceptable for viewing or syncing to sensor data, but will not be suitable for video analysis if the motion is in two dimensions. We know of no workaround to this problem. If you are capturing videos for analysis, it is best to avoid wmv format entirely.

Related TILs:
TIL 1342: Why does the movie player in Logger Pro show a blank white screen?

Created by: jhopkins on April 01 2005
Last updated by: jhopkins on December 08 2009