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How do I play a video file if it doesn't have a file extension?
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Forum Regular
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Somewhere they can't find me
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I think this is the appropriate forum...
Yesterday I came across a piece of news footage online that I want keep for reference. It has the YouTube logo on the bottom, although it was not hosted on the YouTube site. When I first clicked through to the page, I got an error message page telling me I needed Java to view the vid (I had turned Java off in Safari since the OSX hack announced a couple of weeks ago), so I turned Java on, went back to the page and Safari promptly crashed... Anyway, restarted Safari, went back to the page and it played perfectly.
I don't have QT Pro, so to download video in Safari I have to double-click on the file in the activity window, which I did and the 7.5 MB file came down. In my download folder the file has a generic white icon, and no file extension after the name. I dragged the file to the dock, first on MovieTime (a lovely freeware QT player) and then VLC but they did not respond to it (normally they would just start up and play). I right-clicked and went to 'Open With', but nothing showed there at all. I did wonder if it was Flash, but SWF was greyed out when I browsed applications.
So I now have this file, but I don't know what type it is, or how to play it. Any suggestions as to what to do now would be greatly appreciated...
Edit: If you are interested, here is the link:
Rumsfeld Sept 10, 2001: The Pentagon cannot account for $2.3 TRILLION
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"Believe nothing, no matter where you heard it, or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense."
Buddha
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Finland
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It's from Youtube, the file format is FLV. VLC should be able to play it. I'm not sure what you mean when you say that VLC didn't "respond to it". If you mean that the icon didn't turn dark, then hold in the Command- and Option-keys while drag-dropping.
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Forum Regular
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Somewhere they can't find me
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Thanks for the reply - you've solved the problem for me. What I meant earlier is that normally with a video file I just drop it on the MovieTime or VLC icon in the dock, and that starts the app up. However, here the dock icons did not respond at all. After reading your post, I opened VLC and opened the file from within the application, and it played. Following on from that, I added the .flv extension to the filename, and VLC will now open up from the dock to play it.
Many thanks.
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"Believe nothing, no matter where you heard it, or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense."
Buddha
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 2003
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Forum Regular
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Somewhere they can't find me
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[QUOTE=zro;3369878]Alternatively, you can install Perian and add the .FLV extension to the file to play in QuickTime. [QUOTE]
Unfortunately, thanks to the iPhone, I can't use Perian! It is 10.4 only, I'm still on 10.3.9 - I decided to skip Tiger and wait for Leopard, and wait, and wait... 
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"Believe nothing, no matter where you heard it, or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense."
Buddha
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