Important: I have not figured out how to archive music videos from iTunes 5.0 for Windows. This post is a work in progress. If you have more information, especially how to open or convert QuickTime Cache (.qtch) files, please leave a comment.
This post is a work in progress, and will be messy for a time. It’s a followup to my previous post, Saving iTunes Music Store Videos in Windows, updated for iTunes 5.0. We have good news and bad news.
The good news: iTunes does not exclusively lock the files. The bad news: we’re no longer working with simple movie files with .tmp extensions. Apple has switched to some sort of QuickTime cache file, and a quick rename is no longer an option.
iTunes cache files have moved slightly: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Apple Computer\QuickTime\downloads1\11 or C:\Documents and Settings\abackstrom.STONE\Local Settings\Application Data\Apple Computer\QuickTime\downloads\tmp. I assume the 01\11 in the first path changes, but that gives you the basic framework we’re dealing with.
I still had the old download of Alanis Morissette’s Everything. Here is a comparison of the files, filtered through xxd(1). First, the old file:
0000ee0: 6f52 9e37 b977 527f 93c6 17e5 fce9 9212 oR.7.wR.........
0000ef0: 8349 6b94 d4df a8fd 255d 57e2 3fa9 3fe9 .Ik.....%]W.?.?.
0000f00: 8ac2 538e 23e5 5b7a 6779 6efc 5cdf 97b9 ..S.#.[zgyn.\...
0000f10: 65ef 4aca e928 4748 fbf7 cfcd 7b9a f6bd e.J..(GH....{...
0000f20: a89c 483a 77c6 8952 8bd2 d56a f9bd ce5d ..H:w..R...j...]
0000f30: 41b5 307d b27f aece 4649 7522 ca3b a36a A.0}....FIu".;.j
0000f40: 7054 bd8d ba7f 3ab4 ac57 9237 a79c 7f3a pT....:..W.7...:
0000f50: 5324 d58b f054 f95d 5ad9 df4f 7115 743e S$...T.]Z..Oq.t>
0000f60: 49d7 9631 25e5 587a b0cc 6352 dd4b 5afb I..1%.Xz..cR.KZ.Next, the new:
0000ff0: e5fb 98a9 4ced c135 d746 32b3 de1b 7393 ....L..5.F2...s.
0001000: 8396 5685 d5e9 8c1f 8a48 7bde 0a55 6bca ..V......H{..Uk.
0001010: f2bb 7ac3 9463 1d6d 9762 b117 b5b8 3bc8 ..z..c.m.b....;.
0001020: 65ef 4aca e928 4748 fbf7 cfcd 7b9a f6bd e.J..(GH....{...
0001030: a89c 483a 77c6 8952 8bd2 d56a f9bd ce5d ..H:w..R...j...]
0001040: 41b5 307d b27f aece 4649 7522 ca3b a36a A.0}....FIu".;.j
0001050: 7054 bd8d ba7f 3ab4 ac57 9237 a79c 7f3a pT....:..W.7...:
0001060: 5324 d58b f054 f95d 5ad9 df4f 7115 743e S$...T.]Z..Oq.t>
0001070: 49d7 9631 25e5 587a b0cc 6352 dd4b 5afb I..1%.Xz..cR.KZ.Notice how the data streams align midway through the pasted sections. This is not a coincidence. At first glace, I would assume the underlying movie data has not changed, only the header of the file. The big question here is whether or not an old header can be applied to a new movie. The end-of-file segments are identical, so there is no trailer that needs modification.
Next steps:
- Do an additional comparison of old and new files.
- Compare and old and new header for length and content.
- Compare two old headers for length and content.
- Compare two new headers for length and content.
With any luck, the last step will be cutting out the new headers and dropping in the old. More data forthcoming.
You haxor Adam. (:
http://www.moonsand.com/itunes/
Doesn’t mention QTCH files, but seems to work for music videos…
Anyone know how to do the same for movie trailers?
hi, i’d not yet tried the comparison way to make it but guess there must be a way to convert it just with a single click. probably there’s no solid one click way cause qt7 & itns5 are still very new. i guess returning back to qt6 and itns 4.9 will solve this issue, right?
dude. i dunno what that means. could anyone explain it to me?
hey Adam, that link Panda has is useful. I downloaded did what it said and it worked for iTunes 5.0. awesome.. i also have QT7 by the way…
I tried Panda’s link but firefox came back saying the link couldn’t be found. What did the link point to? I’ve been looking for a solution to these .qtch files for at least a week now without success…
Smabbage, Panda’s Link led to a site that manually downloadediTunes Music Videos. It doesnt work on trailers though. ill try to figure out how these *.qtch files work…
bad news… we now have to buy the videos in itunes…
i found on the apple websites previews to HD trailers of ice-age. but, lo, Quicktime would save the interesting data in those friggin’ .qtch files. so i went back to the website and checked the source for the ref-url. the .mov file i found, http://movies.apple.com/movies/fox/ice_age_2/ice_age_2-tsr_1080p.mov was only a few K big, instead of the expected 72MB. so i went ahead and looked at the file with a plaintext file viewer and found the string ice_age_2-tsr_h1080p.mov i then entered that in the URL and wget is still busy downloading the file…
scratch that, it’s 109 MB. the vid is here, and the content, too. only flipside: the 1080 version doesn’t play on my 1.4GHz centrino… guess i’ll find the 720p versions, too…
Please post a followup to this info if you have any further information. There is next to no info on the web about *.qtch files or in newgroups. I think your idea of scanning the files for similarties and looking into replacing the new header sounds good. I would try this myself although I do not have any old *.mov files I can use for comparison. This all points back to a good point me and my GF have made to one another. She is an advertising / consumer science major and we have always wondered why companies treat advertisements and promotional trailers as “intellectual property”. The goal of any company is to get consumers to look at their ads! Why are companies effictively locking users out of FREE promotion for themselves. [Adcritic.com which used to be a free site and now requires you to subscribe is a good example.] You should be lucky enough that people actually seek out your ads to watch again, and then to try and charge people to do so is just insulting, and horrible business sense in my opinion.
On Windows XP:
I have the problem with the qtch files. Basically I can’t save .mov files unless I choose to download them in a download manager or 3rd party program. I’m guessing this is because Quicktime encrypts them so you can only save them if you have the pro version. But that is totally ridiculous, because they are regular .mov files available on the internet. The Quicktime plugin hijacks any url to .mov and encrypts the incoming data, then won’t let you save it (unless you pay for pro).
Anyway I have searched all over for how to save qtch files but no luck. I will be watching this thread.
Winamp will play .qtch audio files however the quality is slightly degraded lots of skips and pops. Hope this helps?
Does anyone know how to move the cache out of the profile to somewhere else on the hard disk? Some of our users have huge profiles due to the iTunes cache and it would be useful to point this elsewhere.
thanks
Don’t mess with qtch files. I am one of the unlucky souls stuck with itunes. It is one of the poorest written, memory hogging, non-intuitive, feature deprived programs ever written. I only use it to load my ipod. I will never, for many reasons, buy another. Anyway, when you get itunes, they feel like they should control your computer so they put some malware on it. The crime of hijacking is committed by Quick Time. Hence the qt in the qtch extension. When you download an mp3, they convert it to a qtch format. You used to be able to just rename it back to mp3 but that has been changed. You get garbled sounds now. However, if after booting up, you pull up Task Manager in xp and right-click on processes (disregard the warnings), you can then delete anything that has anything to do with itunes. IE will then download your selection as an mp3 into the temporary internet files directory, instead of buried deeply in an attempt to hide it from you. I still need to kill itunes from my start up but I will enjoy every click.
Actually I’ve long considered iTunes one of the most functional programs I’ve had the pleasure of using. One of my biggest regrets with using Linux as my primary OS is the lack of iTunes. (Yes, it’s possible to make it work through Cedega et al, I know.)
What do you mean, “when you download an mp3, they convert it to a qtch format?” When you download it through iTunes, Internet Explorer, WS_FTP, what?
I have successfully converted my qtch files to .mov files
QuickTime Cache “qtch” file format is owned by apple i think it’s illegal to hack with it. Until now there is no available program/information that can convert qtch files to its original quicktime player playable.