[Solved] Why Does QuickTime Play MP4 Files without Sound
QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework, though many people know it as a media player. It is owned and developed by Apple Inc., which first came to light in 1991. It is the default media player for Apple's Mac OS with its own set of formats known as QTFF (QuickTime File Formats). QuickTime is capable of playing only a handful of audio and video formats.
It can't be used as a versatile media player that's why Mac users always have a third-party media player installed on their systems. The formats list of QuickTime is highly limited that's why it is prone to return media playback errors if you try to play unsupported formats. One of the most common issues is when a video gets played but no sound can be heard. In this post, we are going to discuss a similar problem: QuickTime plays MP4 but has no sound.
What's the Error QuickTime Play MP4 Without Sound?
We don't need special words to describe this problem. This is a common MP4 playback problem when you don't hear any sound from the movie which you play in QuickTime. Even MP4 files having multi-audio streams can also return the same error and in this case, none of the audio streams will be seen working. To solve this issue you first have to find its root cause because only after that you can avoid such annoying video playback issues in the future.
Some Other Errors Related to QuickTime Play MP4 Without Sound
This QuickTime playback issue is mostly seen on Mac OS. But if you go online and search the web then you'll find similar problems specific to iDevices like iPad, iPad, or even iMovie. Many users have reported that they won't hear any audio out of the device's speaker while playing some MP4 videos. But when the same video gets played in VLC player no issues appear. So this confirms that the MP4 video has a working audio stream but isn't supported by Mac, iOS, or iMovie.
Whether you are using Mac or iOS the problem shares the same cause. Once it gets fixed the video gets played normally. We have given the main cause of the problem in part 4 below.
Why QuickTime Play MP4 With No Sound
You already know that QuickTime isn't capable of playing every video format. If the video that you are trying to play with QuickTime is out of its supported formats list then it can't be played. Sometimes the video format is fully supported but has an unsupported audio codec. However, these videos play normally on other media players.
So, we can say that if you are not getting any audio from your MP4 video in QuickTime then it is an audio codec issue. You don't hear any audio because your video has an audio codec that QuickTime doesn't support.
Solutions to QuickTime Play MP4 With No Sound
In this part, we are discussing a solution that will fix the QuickTime MP4 playback issues. But before make sure that the MP4 file you are trying to play is free from any transcoding, or codec errors. If your MP4 file itself is faulty or corrupt, then it won't be played by any media player. In this situation, blaming QuickTime won't be fare. These errors are quite common when you transcode MP4 videos with some unreliable video converters. So first check your video by playing it in different media players, if it is playing normally then you can use the solution that we are going to share here.
Sometimes MP4 videos often miss an audio codec which is a result of incorrect transcoding. So to be sure that your video has a valid audio stream by using the mediainfo tool to check it. If there exists a valid audio stream in your MP4 file then mediainfo tool will display it, otherwise, it will show nothing.
Now if you have verified that your video is correct and have a valid audio stream then we are ready to apply our solution. To overcome the QuickTime's audio codec problem you should either remux or re-encode your MP4 video with QuickTime compatible format and codec.
What's Remuxing And Re-Encoding?
Remuxing simply means that you are transferring audio and video streams from one container format to another container format in a 1:1 ratio. This keeps the visual quality, resolution, aspect ratio the same as that of the original file.
Re-Encoding (Transcoding) is just converting a video from one format to another. You can convert your video to a QuickTime compatible format and can also adjust audio, video settings using VideoProc.
To remux ot re-encode the MP4 file, we need help from VideoProc, which is very good a video remuxing and transcoding. You can download and install this software from the links given below as it is necessary before proceeding to the tutorial part below.
How to Remux or Re-Encode MP4 Videos With VideoProc
This is a combined tutorial for remuxing and re-encoding an MP4 video using VideoProc. Nearly all the steps are the same for both of these processes. The only difference is the video settings customization part that will be seen in the re-encoding steps below. So, read the tutorial carefully.
Step 1: Open VideoProc and click the Video button on the first screen. This will take you to the main UI screen. Here click +Video and add your MP4 video. After loading the video check the Media Info and confirm that your video has an audio stream. If Yes, then proceed to the next step.
Step 2: At the bottom of the page, choose either MP4 H264 or MP4 HEVC in the Video tab.
Please note that MP4 HEVC is only supported by Mac High Sierra OS and above. Older versions of Mac will require a third-party codec pack for playing HEVC encoded MP4 files.
Step 3: Remuxing – If you want to only remux your video then this is your last step. Click the Auto Copy option. This will remux your movie/video in a 1:1 ration without transcoding. Click RUN to start remuxing. Once the process finishes check the output folder. Play the remuxed file on QuickTime now, this time you'll hear the audio. If you want to re-encode or transcode your MP4 video then skip this step and move to the next step.
Step 4: Re-Encoding/Transcoding – This step should continue after Step 2 if you're skipping Step 3. After loading and selecting the target format for the video click the Codec Option button, which is located on the right side of the video info. There you can customize the Video Settings on your own.
The settings like resolution, aspect ratio, frame rate, video quality can be easily customized. Under Audio Codec options you can enable Force Copy to get the same audio quality as of the source video. Click 'Done' to go back to the main window.
Step 5: After customizing the video settings click the RUN button to start re-encoding your video. Once finished, check the output folder. Play this transcoded file in QuickTime without any audio/sound issues.
Final Words
So with these five steps, you can fix the audio problems in all of your videos or movies using VideoProc. We used the remuxing and the video converter function of VideoProc here in a simple way. But ,its video converter is pretty advanced and supports a lot of audio and video formats. Besides this, it also provides pre-configured device profiles for many devices like smartphones, gaming consoles, and tablets. VideoProc can also be used as an intermediate-level video editor, a screen recorder, video downloader, and a DVD processor. Why not give it a try now to check out all these amazing features?
