Lossless H.264 MOV cannot be opened with Quicktime

Question

I believe that this question is not the same as Lossless H.264 MP4 file created from images cannot be played in QuickTime because that question, and its answer, pertains to converting a series of PNG images. The accepted answer does not work in my case. It also suggests picking a non-zero value for crf whereas I want a 0 value.

I need to convert a bunch of MOV files to mp4 so I can import them into Apple Photos. I would like the conversion to be lossless.

I've tried the following command to convert a single file, with crf = 0 so that it is lossless:

ffmpeg -i in.mov -c:v libx264 -crf 0 -c:a aac -map_metadata 0 out.mp4

(in.mov is 400Mb, out.mp4 is about 600 Mb)

ffmpeg completes without issues but Quicktime cannot open the file (the file is incompatible with Quicktime Player), and Photos cannot import it. VLC can open it and playback without issue.

Setting crf to a value > 1 results in files that quicktime can open.

Any ideas?

Log from converting with crf 0

~/Documents/Movies/Originals/2011  ffmpeg -i clip-2011-11-19\ 15\;10\;42\ \(id\).mov -c:v libx264 -crf 0 -c:a aac -map_metadata 0 ~/Downloads/out.mp4 > ~/Downloads/log.txt
ffmpeg version 4.1.1 Copyright (c) 2000-2019 the FFmpeg developers
  built with Apple LLVM version 10.0.0 (clang-1000.11.45.5)
  configuration: --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/ffmpeg/4.1.1 --enable-shared --enable-pthreads --enable-version3 --enable-hardcoded-tables --enable-avresample --cc=clang --host-cflags='-I/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/openjdk-11.0.2.jdk/Contents/Home/include -I/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/openjdk-11.0.2.jdk/Contents/Home/include/darwin' --host-ldflags= --enable-ffplay --enable-gnutls --enable-gpl --enable-libaom --enable-libbluray --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopus --enable-librubberband --enable-libsnappy --enable-libtesseract --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxvid --enable-lzma --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-frei0r --enable-libass --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-librtmp --enable-libspeex --enable-videotoolbox --disable-libjack --disable-indev=jack --enable-libaom --enable-libsoxr
  libavutil      56. 22.100 / 56. 22.100
  libavcodec     58. 35.100 / 58. 35.100
  libavformat    58. 20.100 / 58. 20.100
  libavdevice    58.  5.100 / 58.  5.100
  libavfilter     7. 40.101 /  7. 40.101
  libavresample   4.  0.  0 /  4.  0.  0
  libswscale      5.  3.100 /  5.  3.100
  libswresample   3.  3.100 /  3.  3.100
  libpostproc    55.  3.100 / 55.  3.100
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'clip-2011-11-19 15;10;42 (id).mov':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : qt  
    minor_version   : 537199360
    compatible_brands: qt  
    creation_time   : 2011-11-20T18:19:29.000000Z
    com.apple.proapps.originalFormat: AVCHD 720p25
    com.apple.proapps.reel: NO NAME
    com.apple.proapps.isGood: 0
    com.apple.proapps.clipID: 000000000993d800e7c246220adc51964b39254c2e0e92c76a06b020d854bdb657d015d58964beeb a63c13f541815de16111047b0c330067ee9d8070d2c8fa22eeb097dd58e15461c1c0e7060096774eb9b636c79ce3e48
    com.apple.quicktime.creationdate: 2011-11-19T15:10:42+0000
  Duration: 00:01:27.36, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 37052 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(eng): Video: aic (icod / 0x646F6369), yuv420p(bt709, progressive), 1280x720, 35481 kb/s, SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 2500 tbn, 2500 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2011-11-20T18:19:29.000000Z
      handler_name    : Apple Video Media Handler
      encoder         : Apple Intermediate Codec
      timecode        : 00:00:00:00
    Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: pcm_s16le (sowt / 0x74776F73), 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 1536 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2011-11-20T18:19:29.000000Z
      handler_name    : Apple Sound Media Handler
    Stream #0:2(eng): Data: none (tmcd / 0x64636D74)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2011-11-20T18:19:29.000000Z
      handler_name    : Time Code Media Handler
      timecode        : 00:00:00:00
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (aic (native) -> h264 (libx264))
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (pcm_s16le (native) -> aac (native))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
[libx264 @ 0x7fef1b817600] using SAR=1/1
[libx264 @ 0x7fef1b817600] using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast SSSE3 SSE4.2 AVX FMA3 BMI2 AVX2
[libx264 @ 0x7fef1b817600] profile High 4:4:4 Predictive, level 3.1, 4:2:0 8-bit
[libx264 @ 0x7fef1b817600] 264 - core 155 r2917 0a84d98 - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec - Copyleft 2003-2018 - http://www.videolan.org/x264.html - options: cabac=1 ref=3 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x1:0x111 me=hex subme=7 psy=0 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=0 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 fast_pskip=0 chroma_qp_offset=0 threads=18 lookahead_threads=3 sliced_threads=0 nr=0 decimate=1 interlaced=0 bluray_compat=0 constrained_intra=0 bframes=0 weightp=2 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=40 intra_refresh=0 rc=cqp mbtree=0 qp=0
Output #0, mp4, to '/Users/channing/Downloads/out.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : qt  
    minor_version   : 537199360
    compatible_brands: qt  
    creation_time   : 2011-11-20T18:19:29.000000Z
    com.apple.proapps.originalFormat: AVCHD 720p25
    com.apple.proapps.reel: NO NAME
    com.apple.proapps.isGood: 0
    com.apple.proapps.clipID: 000000000993d800e7c246220adc51964b39254c2e0e92c76a06b020d854bdb657d015d58964beeb a63c13f541815de16111047b0c330067ee9d8070d2c8fa22eeb097dd58e15461c1c0e7060096774eb9b636c79ce3e48
    com.apple.quicktime.creationdate: 2011-11-19T15:10:42+0000
    encoder         : Lavf58.20.100
    Stream #0:0(eng): Video: h264 (libx264) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 1280x720 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=-1--1, 0.04 fps, 12800 tbn, 25 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2011-11-20T18:19:29.000000Z
      handler_name    : Apple Video Media Handler
      timecode        : 00:00:00:00
      encoder         : Lavc58.35.100 libx264
    Side data:
      cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 0/0/0 buffer size: 0 vbv_delay: -1
    Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 128 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2011-11-20T18:19:29.000000Z
      handler_name    : Apple Sound Media Handler
      encoder         : Lavc58.35.100 aac
frame= 2184 fps= 53 q=-1.0 Lsize=  831156kB time=00:01:27.36 bitrate=77939.9kbits/s speed=2.13x    
video:829737kB audio:1368kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 0.005997%
[libx264 @ 0x7fef1b817600] frame I:9     Avg QP: 0.00  size:426350
[libx264 @ 0x7fef1b817600] frame P:2175  Avg QP: 0.00  size:388880
[libx264 @ 0x7fef1b817600] mb I  I16..4: 34.2%  0.0% 65.8%
[libx264 @ 0x7fef1b817600] mb P  I16..4: 24.7%  0.0% 27.5%  P16..4: 21.2% 13.8% 12.5%  0.0%  0.0%    skip: 0.3%
[libx264 @ 0x7fef1b817600] 8x8 transform intra:0.0% inter:75.2%
[libx264 @ 0x7fef1b817600] coded y,uvDC,uvAC intra: 99.4% 99.7% 99.7% inter: 94.3% 95.2% 95.1%
[libx264 @ 0x7fef1b817600] i16 v,h,dc,p: 54% 46%  0%  0%
[libx264 @ 0x7fef1b817600] i4 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 43% 46%  3%  1%  2%  2%  2%  1%  1%
[libx264 @ 0x7fef1b817600] i8c dc,h,v,p:  0% 49% 50%  0%
[libx264 @ 0x7fef1b817600] Weighted P-Frames: Y:0.2% UV:0.1%
[libx264 @ 0x7fef1b817600] ref P L0: 75.0% 16.1%  6.5%  2.4%  0.0%
[libx264 @ 0x7fef1b817600] kb/s:77806.84
[aac @ 0x7fef1b808000] Qavg: 419.244

What about it doesn't work? Does `ffmpeg` fail? Is the resulting bitrate so high that it just won't play smoothly? Quicktime can't open it, but can anything else? How big is the output file? — Attie, Mar 01 '19 at 12:42
Just to make sure: Can you input file be played or imported? (Still need to see the log though.) — slhck, Mar 01 '19 at 14:14
I suggest you the tool "avidemux" that is a good tool for simple video editing and transcode and also is available on windows, linux and osx — DDS, Mar 01 '19 at 14:19
@DDS That is not a very helpful comment. I suggest deleting it unless you can tell the OP exactly what to do to fix his problem. — slhck, Mar 01 '19 at 14:20
It was posted as comment and not as an answer because I'm not willing to write that much — DDS, Mar 01 '19 at 14:22
@DDS It's still not helpful. What should the OP do with avidemux, exactly? If you can't (or don't want to) explain how this solves the problem, the comment is just noise and will be confusing—particularly for inexperienced users. — slhck, Mar 01 '19 at 14:25
He just have to transcode the video... it looked obvious from question itself. — DDS, Mar 01 '19 at 14:28
x264 crf 0 will generate a h264 stream with profile high444. Not widely supported. — Gyan, Mar 01 '19 at 14:32
Still the case: `[libx264 @ 0x7f9030819200] profile High 4:4:4 Predictive, level 4.2, 4:2:0 8-bit`. It's part of the bitstream spec, so not going to change with ffmpeg version. — Gyan, Mar 01 '19 at 15:40
Wanting to use CRF=0 is not the same as getting to use CRF=0, especially given the answer in the duplicate question clearly states that is not possible AND gives the reason why (Quicktime is an out of date media player that does not support this). This is still a duplicate. — music2myear, Mar 01 '19 at 19:23
And the accepted answer on that duplicate question does not work to solve this issue. Quicktime might be an out of date media player, but that's what I need. Are we saying it's not possible to losslessly convert a MOV to something QuickTime can view? — Channing Walton, Mar 02 '19 at 11:40
I have a solution that seems to work based on https://superuser.com/a/1293733/78792, what was missing was -vtag hvc1 The complete command is: ffmpeg -I in.mov -c:v libx265 -preset veryslow -crf 0 -vtag hvc1 -c:a aac -map_metadata 0 out.mov — Channing Walton, Mar 02 '19 at 18:32
@ChanningWalton, your solution worked for me. We finally have a working solution that works with Quicktime! Now, here is the deeper question.... why does it work? — codewise, May 01 '19 at 00:01

Lossless H.264 MOV cannot be opened with Quicktime

0 Answers0