Usability Horrorshow

Playing .qcp files on Mac OS X

I’m going to keep technical postings to a minimum, but here’s a tip that I discovered after much ridiculousness. I couldn’t find an answer anywhere else (but did find a couple of lonely unanswered questions on how-to), so here it is.

How to play .qcp files on OS X 10.4:

Using classic, launch the oldest version of Quicktime you have (5 works, 6 should too) from your OS 9 applications folder.

From Quicktime, open a .qcp file. Select “convert”. Save the converted file as prompted.

Back in OS X, launch your latest version of Quicktime and load the converted file.

It’s that easy.

So I have to do that for every file I have. This time over 50. Ouch.

Here’s the deal: I love the voice memo option on my phone that according to my reading of the users manual doesn’t actually exist. I found it by accident. I use it all the time.

I wanted to get the files over my Mac so I could insert them into my journal software and transcribe them. But after exporting the files via micro SD card, I discovered they had .qcp extensions and OS X thought they were UNIX files. I’m no stranger to codecs and couldn’t remember seeing this one before.

None of the usual suspects would load it. QuickTime, VLS, Audacity…

So I googled ‘mac .qcp player’. And the news: there’s no OS X player that works. Nothing at all. QualComm makes a player for OS X and the OS 9 version no longer installs in classic. I tried restarting from my OS 9 disk and installing that way. I don’t recommend it. Ugly.

I found a post that seemed to indicate that QT 6 would play a .qcp file, so in classic I ran the old QT file and that did the transcoding trick.

But why all the hoops? Why would Apple remove a perfectly useful function? It’s not like my phone or the codec is outdated. Why would the manufacturer decide to use a codec not widely supported? And my provider? If you email yourself the notes, they’re transcoded to .wav files along the way. But the catch? You have to pay for it.

The more time I spend with phone, the more I am convinced that usability was deliberately sabotaged to make sure that the simplist option is always purchasing.

I can’t transfer my files via bluetooth, so I have to keep plugging in and out the tiny Micro SD card to transfer between my computer and the phone if I want to load .mp3s or custom ringtones. The other option is I buy songs and ringtones directly from them on my phone.

I could email myself the file and pay them, or I can plug in the card, move the file, unplug the card, plug it into a USB reader, plug that into my Mac, transfer the file, then finally load and transcode the file using two different versions of Quicktime on two different OS’s.

Which would you prefer?

How much time can you literally afford to waste?

TAGS: Mac