Quicktime only plays some .Avi's... why?

[wirelessimports]

I have a problem here. Im kind of an experienced mac user and yet still a novice. I have some .avi files that play and some that just plain old dont. I thought maybe the file was corrupt so i sent it to a windows machine. Windows media player 11 played the file just fine. I have tried the DivX and Flip4Mac player as well and still nothing but just audio. Quicktime is telling me that it requires a plug in... and for me this is the hardest thing in the world to figure out which plug in it needs.

I found the smallest avi file i have which doesnt play and its only 1.8mb and uploaded it to the link below (thank god we all have macs and no one is worried about virus's huh... haha).

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=7EBA25B41D01A101

so if someone could download the file and see if it plays for them please let me know all of the plug ins you have for quicktime and a URL if you dont mind of where i can instal them for myself. again, any help anyone can lend is greatly appreciated.

thank you.

 

[Veldek]

I think this is because avi is just a container for video and audio formats. To play all the different formats you need different plugins. You already have DivX, so you might also need XVid. There are some more I think, that I can't remember at the moment.

You could also use VLC or MPlayer, which should work, too, but I also prefer QT.

Edit: I think another format is 3ivx, for example.

 

[MikeDTyke]

I have a problem here. Im kind of an experienced mac user and yet still a novice. I have some .avi files that play and some that just plain old dont. I thought maybe the file was corrupt so i sent it to a windows machine. Windows media player 11 played the file just fine. I have tried the DivX and Flip4Mac player as well and still nothing but just audio. Quicktime is telling me that it requires a plug in... and for me this is the hardest thing in the world to figure out which plug in it needs.

I found the smallest avi file i have which doesnt play and its only 1.8mb and uploaded it to the link below (thank god we all have macs and no one is worried about virus's huh... haha).

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=7EBA25B41D01A101

so if someone could download the file and see if it plays for them please let me know all of the plug ins you have for quicktime and a URL if you dont mind of where i can instal them for myself. again, any help anyone can lend is greatly appreciated.

thank you.

AVI is only a container, just like quicktime is. There's so many codecs within these containers, its impossible for QT or Flip4Mac to cover them All.

I'd try VLC... http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
or mplayer for os x.. mplayerosx.sourceforge.net


Cheers
M.

 

[iMeowbot]

Yuck, the codec is IV50 (Indeo 5.x). Did anyone ever get a version of that working under OS X, or was it left for dead?

 

[MisterMe]

Yuck, the codec is IV50 (Indeo 5.x). Did anyone ever get a version of that working under OS X, or was it left for dead?

The IV50 codec is MacOS 9/Classic-only. For reasons that escape me, some digital still cameras use this ancient format for their videos.

 

[wirelessimports]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I tried VLC and got this error:

"main: no suitable decoder module for fourcc `IV50'.
VLC probably does not support this sound or video format."

is there a way to send this file to a PC and then convert it to something OS X can understand?

 

[VanNess]

if someone could download the file and see if it plays for them please let me know all of the plug ins

Plays like a champ on my machine, but...

Only in classic using QT6.0.3 and with Indeo Video 5 installed, which is classic only but still available for download.

Ironically, if you're using an Intel Mac, you're sol. It is an old and, for all practical intents and purposes, obsolete codec. Intel sold it's indeo codec business way back in 2000.

 

[wirelessimports]

Plays like a champ on my machine, but...

Only in classic using QT6.0.3 and with Indeo Video 5 installed, which is classic only but still available for download.

Ironically, if you're using an Intel Mac, you're sol. It is an old and, for all practical intents and purposes, obsolete codec. Intel sold it's indeo codec business way back in 2000.

Well thats comforting to know. Yes im on a 24" iMac running damn intel. Are there any programs out there available to convert the video to something readable? obviously perferablly on a mac but if need be windows will do.

I am sorry for all the questions, but i am a complete noob when it comes to these kind of things. once again i want to thank everyone for their feedback and support.

and for the love of god why cant there be just one standard to play everything. there should be a law stating that new video players should not be created if they can not play with all sorts of digital formats. just imagine in 10 years all the videos you have wont be able to play on your new OS XII machine all because its just 'old tech'.

 

[wirelessimports]

Plays like a champ on my machine, but...

Only in classic using QT6.0.3 and with Indeo Video 5 installed, which is classic only but still available for download.

Ironically, if you're using an Intel Mac, you're sol. It is an old and, for all practical intents and purposes, obsolete codec. Intel sold it's indeo codec business way back in 2000.

Well thats comforting to know. Yes im on a 24" iMac running damn intel. Are there any programs out there available to convert the video to something readable? obviously perferablly on a mac but if need be windows will do.

I am sorry for all the questions, but i am a complete noob when it comes to these kind of things. once again i want to thank everyone for their feedback and support.

and for the love of god why cant there be just one standard to play everything. there should be a law stating that new video players should not be created if they can not play with all sorts of digital formats. just imagine in 10 years all the videos you have wont be able to play on your new OS XII machine all because its just 'old tech'.

 

[periananger]

iMac Leopard QT avi flv playback white window

This is an old thread but I have a related problem.

Just bought a 24" iMac with OS 10.5 (Leopard).
Installed Perian 1.0 component so that it would help playback different video formats not directly supported by Quicktime (QT).

The problem is that still I cannot play back avi files that were captured with Hypercam 2 on the old PC (Microsoft Windows XP). The clips can be played on the old PC with no problem. However, on the iMac the clips play back with a white screen in the playback window. There are no error messages.

When I take out the Perian component from the QT sub-folder, I get an error message saying that I need a plug-in. From searching the Internet I thought that Perian was the best solution. So far, it doesn't seem to work.

Any suggestion or comment? Help/advice would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

 

[TheStu]

This is an old thread but I have a related problem.

Just bought a 24" iMac with OS 10.5 (Leopard).
Installed Perian 1.0 component so that it would help playback different video formats not directly supported by Quicktime (QT).

The problem is that still I cannot play back avi files that were captured with Hypercam 2 on the old PC (Microsoft Windows XP). The clips can be played on the old PC with no problem. However, on the iMac the clips play back with a white screen in the playback window. There are no error messages.

When I take out the Perian component from the QT sub-folder, I get an error message saying that I need a plug-in. From searching the Internet I thought that Perian was the best solution. So far, it doesn't seem to work.

Any suggestion or comment? Help/advice would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

VLC.

 

[periananger]

theStu,

Thank you very much for such a prompt reply and help.
However, the clip with VLC did not work.

I downloaded the latest version (with .d) and when I opened a video clip with VLC it gave me a BLACK window (instead of a WHITE) window now. The error message was "computer too slow?"!!

In addition, when I retried running the video clip on my old PC (Windows XP) with QuickTime (version 7), the clip played fine! On the other hand, QT plays just a white window on my iMac (Leopard) even with perian installed as a QT component. And, the clip plays back with a black window when I open it with VLC. Puzzling.

[By the way the clip might be mswmm format (don't know how to confirm) within avi because it was a screen capture using Hypercam 2.]

 

[periananger]

OK. I finally found that probably the avi file captured using Hypercam 2 is based on MS-CRAM (Microsoft Video 1---an old codec). Now I've to find either a converter for this format to .mov or a codec for MS-CRAM that would run on Leopard. Right?