Saving Music Videos in iTunes 5.0 for Windows
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.