How can I find out what codec an avi is using?

[bpetruzzo]

I've got a lot of videos that were created on a PC using Adobe Premiere a long time ago. They're all AVI files which won't play on my mac. I'm hoping I'll be able to find whatever codec they're using, but first I need to figure out what codec that is. How can I figure that out?

 

[lorductape]

well first of all they WILL play on the mac. try VLC or Doubletwist.

 

[bpetruzzo]

Hmm. Well, would you look at that. I've had VLC all this time and didn't think to try it. I'm still interested in seeing if there's a way to bring it into QT though. I prefer to keep things integrated. Can I view the codec in VLC?

 

[MisterMe]

I've got a lot of videos that were created on a PC using Adobe Premiere a long time ago. They're all AVI files which won't play on my mac. ...

Install Flip4Mac for WMV and Perian [almost] everything else.

 

[Cinder6]

To find out the codec used:

1. Open Terminal.app
2. cd to the directory that has the file in question
3. Type 'file thevideofileyouwant.avi'

That'll tell you the codec used. The 'file' command is actually very useful in finding out information for a lot of different filetypes.

Here's an example from my system. Hopefully it's readable; my prompt is color-coded and doesn't look great when it's in B&W.

┌─(cinder6@Macintosh:s000)────────────────────────────────────────────(09:58)─┐
└─(~:%)── cd Movies                                                ──(Jul 13)─┘

┌─(cinder6@Macintosh:s000)────────────────────────────────────────────(09:58)─┐
└─(~/Movies:%)── file Chrono\ Resurrection.avi                     ──(Jul 13)─┘
Chrono Resurrection.avi: RIFF (little-endian) data, AVI, 640 x 480, ~30 fps,
video: DivX 5, audio: uncompressed PCM (stereo, 22050 Hz)

┌─(cinder6@Macintosh:s000)────────────────────────────────────────────(09:59)─┐
└─(~/Movies:%)──

 

[Queso]

Open the movie in VLC, then go to the Window menu and open the Media Information dialog. The codec for each stream is listed.

 

[sven-]

Most easy way to see what codecs are used, is by opening the file with Mediainfo Mac

http://mediainfo.massanti.com/