GoPro Studio is a fantastic platform for creating and editing GoPro footages. It allows the user to export edited video footages in two ways. They are,
- H264 format
- GoPro CineForm format
The h264 format is a very good choice for sharing created GoPro videos on the web. But H264 format encompasses somewhat a whole heap of compression algorithm that results in loss of a lot of information. So, GoPro Studio users typically opt CineForm format (GoPro’s own codec) to export their edited video files.
The CineForm format results in video files that are of higher quality in comparison with the H264 algorithm. CineForm video files come packed with MOV container and when the user tries to play the exported video, they might feel difficulty in opening it. Typically, users can’t open the exported CineForm video footages and face error that states cannot play the CFHD codec.
But, this is not an unresolvable issue; in fact, it is very easy to fix. So, here it is explained how to play GoPro CineForm MOV video files without difficulty.
- Install GoPro CineForm Codecs
To play exported CineForm videos, you must have necessary codecs. And, there are two ways to install the required codecs on your computer to play GoPro CineForm video files.
Way 1: The foremost method is to install GoPro Studio software on your computer. GoPro Studio itself consists of necessary CineForm codec and makes it accessible to other applications installed on your system. So, it should work in resolving playback issues of exported CineForm videos.
In certain instances, this technique doesn’t help due to some or the other reasons. Since the GoPro Studio software might be a higher freight than you require if the goal is to play only the videos.
Way 2: The second technique is to just install the GoPro CineForm decoder. To do this, visit the GoPro CineForm decoder official page. There you will find different decoders for both Mac and Windows versions. Download the suitable decoder based on your OS and install them.
- Play GoPro CineForm MOV Videos in QuickTime Player
Once the CineForm codec is installed on your Mac system, it should be automatically accessible in QuickTime player.
According to research, QuickTime 7 works best in playing CineForm MOV files. Since QuickTime 7 involves a different structural design than the consequent editions of QuickTime. Thus, the videos play swiftly and evidently, like any other video files.
No issue even if you have other editions of QuickTime. If you play the GoPro CineForm videos in newer versions of QuickTime, it will play, but it slows things down as it needs to through a conversion process first. So, just give a try for your existing QuickTime player. In case, you face any issue then go for QuickTime 7.
If the CineForm MOV videos fail to play even in QuickTime 7, then make use of Remo Repair MOV tool and then try to play the videos.
In case, the video plays fine after fixing it then this verifies you were facing playback issues due to video file corruption. I suggested Remo Repair MOV because it is the efficient way to fix damaged MOV files as well corrupted.
- Play GoPro CineForm MOV Videos in VLC Player
VLC is a reliable and open-source application available to play any (a huge number of) video file formats. But VLC cannot play videos encoded in GoPro CineForm format since CineForm is the proprietary format.
But, GoPro might change this somewhere in future as GoPro announced that when the CineForm codec grow into SMPTE standard (in progress), it supports VLC player. At that time, you can enjoy the playback of CineForm MOV videos even in your VLC player.