Exported videos do not play (The file isn’t compatible)

Cliff

Good morning All,

I recently purchased Spine Pro, and I'm encountering issues when exporting my animations into MOV or AVI video formats. Whenever I attempt to play these exported videos using various playback software, including QuickTime Player, an error message appears stating, 'The file isn't compatible with QuickTime Player or any other software.'

As a newcomer to Spine, I'm uncertain if I'm overlooking any steps before exporting the video to ensure compatibility with different playback software. I downloaded MKPlayer, which is the only software where my animations play successfully. However, when attempting to view these videos on my iPad via Airdrop, they also fail to play without MKPlayer.

My intention is to share these animations with others and upload them online. I'm concerned about whether recipients will be able to play or view these videos online. Could you please advise if there are any specific settings I should adjust in the Export section before exporting my videos?

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Best regards,

Cliff

Nate

Welcome to Spine! Sorry you've run into an issue already. 😓

In versions 4.1+, Spine uses ffmpeg to create videos . That's an industry standard and should create widely compatible videos. I believe the problems come from the player side.

We've seen various players handle videos differently, from being unable to play to showing the wrong colors. For example:
https://esotericsoftware.com/forum/d/13151-spines-video-encoding-producing-high-contrast-color

QuickTime is... not a good player. It can handle mov+mpeg4, mov+prores, mov+jpeg, and avi+jpeg, but probably is unable to play anything else. For example, mov+png+alpha works in Final Cut Pro but QT can't play it. I believe Apple removed mov+png support from QT at some point. ProRes can have transparency, but IIRC using transparency in your video will prevent QT from playing it.

If you plan to send videos to people who will use QT, you may need to stick to the codecs I listed above. Otherwise, QT is a mess and should be avoided.

FWIW, WEBM is a decent, modern format that is well supported by browsers and can have transparency. Plus it often generates files that are half the size of MPEG4 at the same bitrate.

Cliff

Hi Nate, thanks so much for your quick reply and all the information given. I tried MPEG4 for the MOV and Quicktime played it finally. I will also try the WEBM for the browsers. Do you recommend other players that you know they could handle better codecs than Quicktime or at least players that hardly had issues playing Exported videos through Spine? Thanks a lot for your time!

Luke

Cliff Have you tried VLC Media Player? It's free, cross-platform, and plays nearly anything you can throw at it.
https://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Cliff

Luke Will definitely check it out! I used it before to watch movies and stuff but not recently or with my animations. I thought of it but wasn't sure. Thanks so much for your reply! 🙂

Nate

I'm mostly use Windows, and there I use PotPlayer. I'm not sure what the best option is on macOS, sorry! However, if the goal is to send a video file to other people, then you'll have to use the format that works on the most players, which is probably MOV+MPEG4 or WEBM.

Cliff

Nate No worries at all! Yeah I'm on macOS and couldn't find much info. thanks so much for your help. I guess you are right, those options would be the best.