question about videos on mac

[billyjoegibsonx]

Hi, i'm new to mac and will be getting my first mac on monday. I went to the shop today and they're sold out! >.<

My question is :

I have a few movies on my vista laptop, in the format of .avi, I watch them on windows media player, they can not play on iTunes however.
Would i be able to transfer them over to my macbook and watch them in quicktime & itunes, if i converted them to a different file type using quicktime (or would i have to update to Quicktime Pro? Perian? or other programs like such). If so, what file type would i need to convert it to, to be able to watch in both itunes and quicktime? Would i also need the DivX codec installed on my mac to watch them or is that supported in Mac?

Also, can i download youtube videos using Quicktime, Quicktime Pro, Perian etc and watch them on quicktime & itunes ?

Thank you

 

[JediMeister]

QuickTime and iTunes prefer mp4 or mov files. QuickTime Pro will allow you to convert the files but the license key doesn't add compatibility for additional file formats. That would require installation of Perian. MPEG Streamclip is a free application that you can download for either your Mac or your PC to convert to the above listed formats and you can test it on your PC first before migrating the files over to the Mac.

 

[Cave Man]

I have a few movies on my vista laptop, in the format of .avi. Would i be able to transfer them over to my macbook and watch them in quicktime & itunes

Forget Quicktime and iTunes - they suck at video playback and cannot handle AC3 very well and DTS not at all. Get the freebie app Plex - best video app available for the Mac.

Also, can i download youtube videos using Quicktime, Quicktime Pro, Perian etc and watch them on quicktime & itunes ?

In Safari under the Activity window, find the flash video, copy it, then open your Safari Download window and paste it into there. You need to convert it to QT format, and I use VisualHub for that. It's gone now, but there are probably other apps that will transcode for you.