AVI Codec for Quicktime 10?

[Michaelgtrusa]

Hello.


I have an avi file that Quicktime cannot play. Does anyone use avi codecs for quicktime 10?

 

[spinnerlys]

www.perian.org for playing back .avi files in QT Player.
www.videolan.net for playing back .avi files.

Btw, .avi is not a codec, but a container for a variety of codecs like Divx or Xvid or Intel Indeo.
.mov is also a container for a variety of codecs like DV, AIC, Sorensen 3, ProRes and most prominently H264.

MRoogle - a very effective tool to search these fora using Google, which would have told you that of course

 

[Airforcekid]

I second Perian if it cant play it nothing will.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

Thanks members. I have perian installed, but quicktime 10 still will not play the file, but vlc will. This is what it looks like.

 

[spinnerlys]

Thanks members. I have perian installed, but quicktime 10 still will not play the file, but vlc will. This is what it looks like.

I can play back .avi files, encoded with Xvid/Divx, via QT X. Maybe that specific .avi file uses a codec, Perian can't read, but VLC can.

Is there a special need, to play them back via QT X?

You can use Movist to find out what codec it uses.

Btw, the icon (what it looks like) doesn't tell us much, as icons for my .avi files look like this:

 

[tolsthoorn]

Quicktime 10 doesn't play avi -- drains trust in Apple

Thanks members. I have perian installed, but quicktime 10 still will not play the file, but vlc will. This is what it looks like.

I bought Apple convinced that everything always works on Apple. Finding out that Quicktime doesn't play my Matlab generated avi files continues to be a disappointment, which I found hard to believe. The codec info supplied by Apple is too complex. Therefore I always use free Goldeneye's VLC and suspended using Quicktime altogether. It's just a pity to have to conclude that programs by others are more useful than programs from Apple (something similar happens with lack of flash support in iPad). I'd expected such policies rather from MS than from Apple. Btw thanks VLC people for making my Mac this useful despite some Apple policies.

TO, Netherlands

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

I think your expectations may be a little too high here. Almost nothing "just works". Macs work well, but they don't just automatically do everything. Macs support most industry (or professional) codecs and containers, and AVI isn't typically one of them.

Nothing is perfect, and there is no system where "everything always works".

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

I agree that nothing just works when you have hard drive with 50% fail rates bad lcd panels and they are still on sell. My imac was a huge let down, one prob after another.

 

[madwolf]

Macs work well, but they don't just automatically do everything. Macs support most industry (or professional) codecs and containers, and AVI isn't typically one of them.

AVI is the standard container on Windows like MOV is on the mac. AVI is an industry standard container and if you look on the internet you'll find much more avi files than mov files.
Windows supports AVI and does not support MOV (without additional 3rd party software), OS X supports MOV and does not support AVI (without 3rd party software).

Unfortunately there are many problems of this type on OS X. Take AVCHD for example. It IS an industry standard, 90% of non-pro, consumer HD video cameras record in AVCHD. There are no problems with it on Windows. The best iMovie can do with it is transcode it, which takes quite a lot of time. Final Cut is no better. On OS X only VLC can play it natively.

 

[MisterMe]

AVI is the standard container on Windows like MOV is on the mac. AVI is an industry standard container and if you look on the internet you'll find much more avi files than mov files.
Windows supports AVI and does not support MOV (without additional 3rd party software), OS X supports MOV and does not support AVI (without 3rd party software).

....

You completely and totally miss three very important points:

1. The .avi container does not matter. The QuickTime frameworks have supported this container for more than a decade. The important consideration is the codec. A camcorder may generate video with the .avi container format, but that says nothing about the audio and video codecs used to produce the included content. These may be obscure proprietary formats.
2. If the manufacturer goes the proprietary route, then it is incumbent upon it to provide the codecs to its customers. Some do; others don't.
3. What you really don't get is that the QuickTime frameworks are extensible. It makes no more sense to complain about Apple's not providing "native" support for a particular codec than it makes to complain about there being no Cadillac brand automobile tires or Nissan brand motor fuel. The formats supported by the QuickTime frameworks out of the box are likely receive their support via codecs. If you want to handle additional formats, then you install it from optical disc or from digital download from the Internet. That Internet thing is powerful if you learn how to use it.

 

[madwolf]

1. Agreed. The person before me wrote that AVI is an obscure container, I just replied that it is not.

2. and 3. AVCHD itself is also only a container. The format used within is h.264 which Quicktime is perfectly capable of decoding. Apple just chose not to support the AVCHD container in its software.

 

[MisterMe]

1. Agreed. The person before me wrote that AVI is an obscure container, I just replied that it is not.

2. and 3. AVCHD itself is also only a container. The format used within is h.264 which Quicktime is perfectly capable of decoding. Apple just chose not to support the AVCHD container in its software.

The thing about AVCHD, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, and others is that they are delivery formats. They were never intended to be used as source material for editing video. Apple devotes its resources to developing tools to edit video formats that were actually developed with editing in mind.