Quicktime: Invalid Public Movie Atom was Found in the Movie

Contributor Icon Contributed by davak Date Icon November 3, 2007  
Tag Icon Tagged: Entertainment

When using quicktime in Windows or OS X, this error is occasionally seen when trying to view video files. Here is the cause and the fix.


The movie could not be opened.
An invalid public movie atom was found in the movie.

When ripping and viewing videos, this is an error message that is difficult to interpret.

Basically this error occurs when a program converts a video for which the correct codec is not installed.

For example, many programs will convert from divx/xvid to Apple friendly formats for iPods or AppleTv. Most of these programs assume that the correct video interpretation software (codec) is installed. If it is not, the program will convert it anyway. The ultimate unusable output will spit this error.

The fix is to install the correct codec on the machine before performing the conversions.

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  • exasperated
    How do I find out what the correct codec is?
  • Mark MacKay
    I also would like to know the correct codec!
  • dennis
    This does us Mac users running 10.5 Leopard no good at all, since AVS works on Bill Gates machines only. Got a solution for Apple computers?
  • Meh, I opened it with VLC and it woks fine.
  • film festival maven
    Whats' VLC?
  • Rene
    Video Lan Player
  • Calvin
    is there a solution to save the files?
  • Mannox
    IF you have the files saved on an external drive (or even if they were at ANY point saved on an external drive), go to your manuf's website and download the latest firmware upgrade for that external drive. Worked for me and solved ALL my .dmg issues, ALL my public movie atom issues, and all my "Error 4960" issues.

    If the files became "corrupt" at some point (while they were on an external drive) - copying them to another location would only be making copies of broken files. You have to go back to the drive (hopefully they are still there). Keeping the files ON the drive, update the firmware. Everything came back for me, instantly. Whew!

    mannox@gmail.com
  • No, the problem is not related to codec's. I've had this error with pretty much every file I've transcoded from avi using ffmpeg (command line script). Whilst VLC will play the files quite happily, Quicktime will not... throwing the stated error message.

    The only solution I've currently found is to throw the file back in to be transcoded using something like HandBrake so it builds the MP4 structure QT is expecting.
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