playing avi's

[bursty]

why cant Quicktime 6.5 play avi files in OSX. On my PC, quicktime 6.5 can play avi files perfectly....does anyone know what program i need to play avi's?

[janey]

you need to get an app called DivxDoctor (look on versiontracker.com).

QuickTime sucks at playing avis correctly without doctoring them with DivXDoctor, so you might want to consider using Mplayer (also, look on versiontracker) or VLC (http://www.videolan.org) to play your AVIs.

[whocares]

VLC is the way to go. Get it from VersionTracker.

Also you can find a DivX codec for quicktime that works just fine (no need for DivX Doctor).

[janey]

Also you can find a DivX codec for quicktime that works just fine (no need for DivX Doctor).
I've tried both the 3ivx (crappy) and DivX (distorted/missing sound) codecs, no workie (well). VLC/Mplayer was better. But since former versions of VLC were crappy (now they're pretty good looking and good too) and Mplayer uses up a lot of resources, I find it easier to use DivXDoctor to change the avi to a QuickTime movie.

[abhishekit]

i almost never use quick time..cox it hardly plays anythigs and i cant get full screen...vlc almost plays erverything..rest , mplayer
cheers

[Krizoitz]

you need to get an app called DivxDoctor (look on versiontracker.com).

QuickTime sucks at playing avis correctly without doctoring them with DivXDoctor, so you might want to consider using Mplayer (also, look on versiontracker) or VLC (http://www.videolan.org) to play your AVIs.

Quicktime "sucks" at playing .avi's because most .avi's today are actually encoded using the DiVX codecs, which are very poorly designed. Personally I find avi's to have crappy quality, but because they can create smaller file sizes they are commonly used on the internet because of bandwidth.

[varmit]

mplayer, but its called MPlayer OS X. Its good for playing divx, xvid, i think even wmv.

http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/b/j/bje128/Picture2.jpg

[janey]

Quicktime "sucks" at playing .avi's because most .avi's today are actually encoded using the DiVX codecs, which are very poorly designed. Personally I find avi's to have crappy quality, but because they can create smaller file sizes they are commonly used on the internet because of bandwidth.
actually its not crappy DivX codecs, its the lack of codecs for Mac OS X that make QuickTime bad at playing AVIs. After all, AVIs were originally called VFW files (Video for Windows). And a whole bunch of other things. Sucks to be a Mac user sometimes, but there are a bunch of ways to get past the difficulty of playing AVIs.

[Westside guy]

actually its not crappy DivX codecs, its the lack of codecs for Mac OS X that make QuickTime bad at playing AVIs. After all, AVIs were originally called VFW files (Video for Windows). And a whole bunch of other things. Sucks to be a Mac user sometimes, but there are a bunch of ways to get past the difficulty of playing AVIs.

Not meaning to sound pro-DivX or anti-DivX here, but I'm pretty sure the codecs themselves should be OS agnostic.

[Golem]

Good just the information I needed to play the latest blizzard video!

[janey]

Not meaning to sound pro-DivX or anti-DivX here, but I'm pretty sure the codecs themselves should be OS agnostic.
divx isnt the only codec here, hellooo....

and i'm talking about AVIs in general, not just ones encoded with DivX.

[abhishekit]

mplayer, but its called MPlayer OS X. Its good for playing divx, xvid, i think even wmv.

http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/b/j/bje128/Picture2.jpg

umm..underworld...that was some ***** a** movie man :D

[TBR]

I often play avi's in many different avi formats and have never had a problem with VLC playing anything except wmv and I use mplayer for that.

Quicktime is best for mac format files, and does play fullscreen if you go pro.

[hvfsl]

I use VideoLan www.videolan.org , it supports DVDs as well so I think it is better than MPlayer. VideoLan plays just about every video and audio file format out there. Including WM, quicktime and RealMedia.

[blue&whiteman]

I use VideoLan www.videolan.org , it supports DVDs as well so I think it is better than MPlayer. VideoLan plays just about every video and audio file format out there. Including WM, quicktime and RealMedia.

since when does vlc play realmedia? both mplayer and vlc claim to but neither does.

I myself use both players in combination. I use vlc as my strait up player as I like its full screen better and it also seems to play a bit smoother than mplayer. I use mplayer for anything I want to scrub through as it has 3 different ways to scrub and they all work well. mplayer seems to be a bit more compatible with the many a/v codecs. wmv or asf files seems to play better on mplayer and the odd avi or mpg where the audio won't work on vlc it will always work fine on mplayer. vlc has far better playlists.

I can't really chose a fav. as I seem to like and need both.

[blue&whiteman]

I wanted to add that when I upgraded to a G4 cpu it made a huge difference with both these players. the G4/500 is only 150MHz faster than my original G3 chip but the difference it made was like it was 1GHz faster. they both utilize altivec very well. with the original G3/350 any decent quality rip was quite choppy. back then I had to use mplayer because of its "drop frame rates on slower machines" option. choppiness is now a thing of the past even on the highest quality rips thanks to the blessing of altivec.

[Opteron]

umm..underworld...that was some ***** a** movie man :D
And it's bootlegged, but I'm not making a fuss about that.

Rather good resolution though.

[AhmedFaisal]

As long as they have AVI standard audio or MP3/AC3/Ogg/AAC as for those there are codecs out. The latest DivX.com codec has an importer feature that fixes the MP3 problem and with the AC3 component also allows AVI playback with AC3 audio. If your video is encoded with Xvid you might either want to use DivXTool to change the FOURCC from Xvid to DivX or also get the Xvid.component that will add Xvid functionality to the DivX codec. I actually have the 3ivX codec installed together with the DivX codec as the decoder of the 3ivX codec is faster and I can still use the AVI Importer feature from the DivX.com codec. This combination of codecs allows playback of the following formats:

Video
DivX 3.11, 4, 5
Xvid
MS-MPEG4.4 (FOURCC MP43)
3ivX

with these audio for AC3 and MP3 works just fine, AAC audio as well btw.
Problems are still with files encoded with MS-MPEG4.1, MS-MPEG4.2 and MS-MPEG4.3 (FOURCCs MPG4, MP41, MP42) These can be played back with the FFusion codec, however the audio will not work like that so you might either want to use DivXDoctor to convert the files to MOV (faster) or reencode them as DivX with audio passthrough (slower but then the files will also work on hardware DivX players, like the KiSS DVD Player).

There are problems with DivX AVI files that use closed source Audio codecs such as WMA8 and WMA9, ask Microsoft if they finally get their asses up and write Quicktime codecs for their crap..... For WMA8 there is a converter out (DivXWMAConverter) that will convert the audio into MP3 for WMA9 it is in the works, it depends on how quickly the FFmpeg and mplayer folks can hack the MS codecs to work without having to use Win32 DLLs. In the meantime flame anyone who uses those ****ty codecs in the first place.

On a sidenote, there is also no Indeo Video codec for OSX. Ligos (the company that makes Indeo) and Apple both point fingers at each other and say the other is to blame for that, so I guess it will never happen that there will be an OSX codec.

VLC and MPlayer of course will playback AVIs without much hassle and especially VLC 7.1 also has a greatly improved support for OGM and MKV video files, I however prefer to convert all my files to standard conforming AVIs (meaning DivX codec support DivX video and MP3 audio) simply because that way they will also work in my KiSS DVD Player.
Cheers,

Ahmed

[blue&whiteman]

And it's bootlegged, but I'm not making a fuss about that.

Rather good resolution though.

do you work for the film industry? what do you care?

the more people that buy movies the bigger film budgets get. besides, out of illegal music, sw and movie downloads the movies are the ones no one is really concerned about. downloading a movie is no worse than making a copy of a video tape. no offense but all you good doers toward the music and film industry are kinda pathetic. I feel its wrong to pirate software as it is the whole lifeblood of a sw company but the film and music industries squander so much money on meaningless things. if film and music gave away half its money to the homeless they would all still be rich and there would also be no more homeless.

think about that the next time you knock a divx movie or mp3.

[AhmedFaisal]

do you work for the film industry? what do you care?

the more people that buy movies the bigger film budgets get. besides, out of illegal music, sw and movie downloads the movies are the ones no one is really concerned about. downloading a movie is no worse than making a copy of a video tape. no offense but I all you good doers toward the music and film industry are kinda pathetic. I feel its wrong to pirate software as it is the whole lifeblood of a sw company but the film and music industries squander so much money on meaningless things. if film and music gave away half its money to the homeless they would all still be rich and there would also be no more homeless.

think about that the next time you knock a divx movie or mp3.

That is actually not the issue. I recently heard on TV that the RIAA-Equivalent in the book industry is currently debating to lower the author precentage of the revenue for each sold book from 11% to 6% (this is Germany mind you) so for every buck I spend on a book only 6% go to the author the rest is to supply the industry goons with fresh cocaine... are you wondering why people are saying screw that? The numbers in the music industry are similar. Sorry, but no, if there is a way to supply the "artist" with money, any time. But just to supply the music industry goons with money, no ****ing way! As for the film industry, I have to say, if its a good movie and you like it, you should buy it, there is one exception I make though. Foreign films (Japanese anime for example). As long as **** gets edited and hacked, the story distorted by bad quality dubs and bad translation subtitles I will keep downloading fansubs. I am not spending money for hackjobs, sorry, nope.
Cheers,

Ahmed

[blue&whiteman]

I was speaking against the industries, not the creative talent. the talent sees little of the profit. corporations do not belong in creative mediums.

[janey]

I was speaking against the industries, not the creative talent. the talent sees little of the profit. corporations do not belong in creative mediums.
you know i sorta agree to both your statement above and the one before that...in the United States they're showing these 30sec ad-type things before the movie where some guy who works on a movie talks to you about how bad it is to download movies and tells you to go to http://www.respectcopyrights.org.
What *really* pisses me off and makes me want to download movies is that my money is paying for the studios to maintain a website where all they're trying to do is to scare people into not downloading movies off the internet. Not just that, they're looking into ways to prevent people from copying DVDs, and they're not even doing a good job. What next...? All DVDs will disintegrate after 3 days (i know it exists)?
This isnt just for movies too, the RIAA is doing a ton of damage to their already-beyond-damaged reputation by suing their own customers for stealing music.

I try not to steal, but both the movie and music industries are annoying me to the point where i'd rather steal, screw the lawsuits, screw copyright law.

[blue&whiteman]

exactly..

[Riot_Mac]

Quicktime can play any file i throw at it usually... w/ some exceptions. You just need to get the codecs... i have about 15-20 in my quicktime library.

[blackfox]

As a number of people have mentioned, mplayer and VLC can handle pretty much nything you throw at them...quicktime has traditionally had problems dealing w/ vbr audio, but is pretty good now w/ latest codecs. Of note, there is also the djoplayer, which is developed off mplayer...has a post-processing feature to smooth out pixelation...nice to finally have options...

[Makosuke]

Ahmed, I'm trying to make sure I have your set of QT codec suggestions straight; I prefer the QT Player interface, so I generally try to play stuff with that even if VLC can handle it as well (seems like at this point VLC plays basically everything you throw at it, with few exceptions; it even has partial support for the old Indeo and i263 codecs at this point; they seem to almost play).

As far as I can tell, if you have both the DivX and 3ivx codecs installed, QT can handle almost anything; the DivX codec fixes the sound synch issues on most .avi files, and 3ivx knows how to decode DivX, XviD, and 3ivx video. It sounded like you were suggesting installing an actual XviD codec, but is that necessary, since 3ivx seems quite capable of handling it? Am I missing something?

Incidentally, there are also some funky MSMPG 41 and 42 Quicktime components floating around, although they really don't seem to work very well.

One more thing:
As for the film industry, I have to say, if its a good movie and you like it, you should buy it, there is one exception I make though. Foreign films (Japanese anime for example). As long as **** gets edited and hacked, the story distorted by bad quality dubs and bad translation subtitles I will keep downloading fansubs.
That seems totally backwards to me; the film industry spends $100M on a movie, and if they're lucky and it panders to the lowest common denominator well enough, with enough advertising, it'll gross $300M at the box office, but people (writers, for example) who agreed to a percentage of the profits never see any of that, because the film somehow miraculously doesn't actually earn any "profits". I hate piracy, but if you're going to priate, they seem like as much of a target as anybody.

Take a little anime translation studio like AnimEigo, Tokyopop, or Hirameki International, on the other hand, and they have maybe a half dozen people working their butts off to translate anime and put it out on reasonably priced DVDs (keep in mind that a US-release DVD costs probably a fifth what the same show does in Japan), but you rationalize not paying for their work because they're not doing a good enough job?

Now, if you're talking about an edited series like DBZ or Sailormoon, where (until recently, in the case of the latter) the studio does not make an uncut or subtitled version available, there's an argument. But the vast majority of anime on US-release DVD has a solid subtitle track and is entirely uncut. If you're going to pirate the videos you watch, it'd be less insulting if you didn't try to justify it that way.

By your logic you should be watching fansubs, but buying import anime videos, so you're properly paying for what you watch, but not supporting the US company botching the translation.

(Incidentally, I'm not just blowing smoke--I know my anime; I write reviews, I speak enough Japanese to know when the subtitles are badly translated, and I've done fansubs myself--completely on a Mac, in .avi format, with XviD video and MP3 audio, which play just fine in Quicktime.)

[AhmedFaisal]

Ahmed, I'm trying to make sure I have your set of QT codec suggestions straight; I prefer the QT Player interface, so I generally try to play stuff with that even if VLC can handle it as well (seems like at this point VLC plays basically everything you throw at it, with few exceptions; it even has partial support for the old Indeo and i263 codecs at this point; they seem to almost play).

As far as I can tell, if you have both the DivX and 3ivx codecs installed, QT can handle almost anything; the DivX codec fixes the sound synch issues on most .avi files, and 3ivx knows how to decode DivX, XviD, and 3ivx video. It sounded like you were suggesting installing an actual XviD codec, but is that necessary, since 3ivx seems quite capable of handling it? Am I missing something?

Incidentally, there are also some funky MSMPG 41 and 42 Quicktime components floating around, although they really don't seem to work very well.

The Xvid.component is necessary if you don't want to use the 3ivX codec. Sorry I didn't say that more clear. Xvid.component is basically an addon for the DivX.com codec that will allow it to play back Xvid, the reason why DivX doesn't have Xvid playback built-in is because of the sour relationship DivX.com has to the Xvid Developers.
As for the MS-MPEG41 and 42 codecs, those don't work well with Quicktime 6.5, you should get the FFmpeg based FFusion codec for those. Unfortunately, MP3 audio doesn't work with those FOURCCs as the AVI Importer doesn't recognize them... but we are trying to soul massage AdrianB from DivX.com to change that.

That seems totally backwards to me; the film industry spends $100M on a movie, and if they're lucky and it panders to the lowest common denominator well enough, with enough advertising, it'll gross $300M at the box office, but people (writers, for example) who agreed to a percentage of the profits never see any of that, because the film somehow miraculously doesn't actually earn any "profits". I hate piracy, but if you're going to priate, they seem like as much of a target as anybody.

Take a little anime translation studio like AnimEigo, Tokyopop, or Hirameki International, on the other hand, and they have maybe a half dozen people working their butts off to translate anime and put it out on reasonably priced DVDs (keep in mind that a US-release DVD costs probably a fifth what the same show does in Japan), but you rationalize not paying for their work because they're not doing a good enough job?

Now, if you're talking about an edited series like DBZ or Sailormoon, where (until recently, in the case of the latter) the studio does not make an uncut or subtitled version available, there's an argument. But the vast majority of anime on US-release DVD has a solid subtitle track and is entirely uncut. If you're going to pirate the videos you watch, it'd be less insulting if you didn't try to justify it that way.

By your logic you should be watching fansubs, but buying import anime videos, so you're properly paying for what you watch, but not supporting the US company botching the translation.

(Incidentally, I'm not just blowing smoke--I know my anime; I write reviews, I speak enough Japanese to know when the subtitles are badly translated, and I've done fansubs myself--completely on a Mac, in .avi format, with XviD video and MP3 audio, which play just fine in Quicktime.)

I am not talking about AnimEigo, and the other "good" studios, hell I poured a ton of bucks into them when I first bought the Orange Road LD set and subsequently the DVD set. Same goes for other releases by those guys. But most stuff I watch comes out fansub first so I pick from those what I really like and wait for the US release, and then a little longer to find out what Animeprime or other sites that look for editing and sub/dub perversions have to say about it, or I try to find ways to look at an episode or two before I put down the money. If there I find that either scenes were edited out or translations were distorted to conform with some cultural nonsense or whatever I don't buy it. Its not that I don't buy Anime stuff, I do, and a lot of it too, but have absolutely no tolerance for deliberate distortions of the content, be that by editing out stuff or changing the translation so that someone's moral preferences are not disturbed. That bugs the hell out of me and I hate shelling money out for that. As for the buying import DVDs, in fact, those are a big preference on my side as many of them start to have english subs nowadays. And besides that, most shows run on Free-TV over there, so its not really like I am stealing anything. Nevertheless, I do try to buy the stuff that I want to watch more than once. But I refuse to spend money on it if it is not done properly as I tried to clarify above. And, again, I don't mean little glitches but deliberate changes to the translation, that I totally do not tolerate.
Cheers,

Ahmed

[Makosuke]

Ok, Ahmend, that cleared up what you were saying on both parts.

On the former topic, sticking to the 3ivx codec seems like the "safest" route, and the easiest to explain to others (I've been trying to put together a "fansub watching on the Mac" tutorial, so this was particularly interesting to me). Besides, VLC makes such a good fallback that I haven't bothered to massage QT into playing the few things that are left--if it falls through the cracks, I just throw it at VLC and call it good.

On the latter topic, your stance is a lot more reasonable than I was reading it at first (never thought I'd run into somebody else who bought the KOR LD set on here!), and I wish most people were that "honorable" about their fansub downloading. I'd have a fit if I were forced to watch some of ADV's "creative" dubs (thankfully, their subs are usually 99% accurate, even on those titles).

Gotta say on the topic of "imports" with English subtitles, nothing makes me madder than people who sell bootleg (HK) imports--the only thing worse than stealing your anime is paying somebody else to steal it for you. Fansubbers definitely get the moral high ground there.

[AhmedFaisal]

On the latter topic, your stance is a lot more reasonable than I was reading it at first (never thought I'd run into somebody else who bought the KOR LD set on here!), and I wish most people were that "honorable" about their fansub downloading. I'd have a fit if I were forced to watch some of ADV's "creative" dubs (thankfully, their subs are usually 99% accurate, even on those titles).

Gotta say on the topic of "imports" with English subtitles, nothing makes me madder than people who sell bootleg (HK) imports--the only thing worse than stealing your anime is paying somebody else to steal it for you. Fansubbers definitely get the moral high ground there.

Argh, you got it wrong again. I am not talking about HK bootlegs. Those subs are the ****tiest I have seen anyways. No I am talking official Japanese release DVDs. There is quite a couple of shows now that appear in !!Japan!! on official DVDs with English subs. Same as Kodansha has been doing a lot of releases of Japanese Manga in bilingual versions. That is the stuff I am talking about. I'd never buy that HK crap....
Cheers,

Ahmed

[Makosuke]

Argh, you got it wrong again. I am not talking about HK bootlegs. ...Don't worry; I didn't think you were talking about HK junk--that was just an offhanded comment that popped into my head at the mention of English-subbed imports. I know there are a handful of legit ones, as well.

Boy, we've managed to drag this thread way off topic...

[wrc fan]

And it's bootlegged, but I'm not making a fuss about that.

Rather good resolution though.

Who says it's bootlegged? Don't assume just cause someone has a divx movie it's bootlegged. I make divx backups of all my dvds. Maybe it's cause I'm lazy and I can leave all of them on my 120GB to play back instantly, or maybe it's cause I need some excuse to turn on my PC every once in a while, but that is called fair use. I paid for the movie I can do what I want with it as long as I'm not redistributing it. The MPAA might try to tell you differently but that's just wrong.

[hvfsl]

since when does vlc play realmedia? both mplayer and vlc claim to but neither does.

I myself use both players in combination. I use vlc as my strait up player as I like its full screen better and it also seems to play a bit smoother than mplayer. I use mplayer for anything I want to scrub through as it has 3 different ways to scrub and they all work well. mplayer seems to be a bit more compatible with the many a/v codecs. wmv or asf files seems to play better on mplayer and the odd avi or mpg where the audio won't work on vlc it will always work fine on mplayer. vlc has far better playlists.

I can't really chose a fav. as I seem to like and need both.

You are right, I just checked the site and they just support older realplayer files.

[MrMacMan]

Yeah you need the Codecs...
I have the 3ivx, Divx Pro, ffmpeg, OggVorbis and somewhere in there is XDivx...

Well what I really want is WMV support for WMP8/9 for MPlayer or VLC...


gah.

[Savage Henry]

It's working for me, and I don't know why I'm surprised but I am.

[SLJ]

where can i get all teh codec for QT from? I just want to keep using one simple player... Cheers :)

[MrMacMan]

where can i get all teh codec for QT from? I just want to keep using one simple player... Cheers :)

I'm currently working out all of the permission to include all of the necessary codecs in one package updated once a month...

I need 2 dev's to contact me back... 3 have said its a good idea for publicity of each of their products...

[Horrortaxi]

Quicktime Pro has never let me down--avi is no problem.

[Makosuke]

where can i get all teh codec for QT from? I just want to keep using one simple player... Cheers :)

Well, the two important ones are:

http://www.3ivx.com/download/macos.html
http://www.divx.com/divx/mac/

Those are the really important ones. Other things that might help are:

Old MSMPEG codecs:
http://thegoods.ath.cx/~hmason/mac-ms-mpeg4v1/
http://thegoods.ath.cx/~hmason/mac-ms-mpeg4v2/
DivX Doctor: http://doctor.3ivx.com/
DivX Tool (one tool to set FourCCs) http://home.comcast.net/~appleguru/collectivesw/download.html

I'm currently working out all of the permission to include all of the necessary codecs in one package updated once a month...

I need 2 dev's to contact me back... 3 have said its a good idea for publicity of each of their products...Now THAT would be cool--I sure hope it works out, since it'd be a lot easier to just point people to an all-in-one codec package. Bet the DivX guys don't go for it, but I sure hope they do.