Perian Help

I was wondering if someone could please help me with Quicktime/Perian.

I had downloaded Flip 4 Mac and Perian in order to play .avi videos and everything worked fine. However I ran updates and installed the suggestions (so now I am running Perian 1.1.3 and other updated software). However, now I can't play the .avi files anymore (there is no sound or volume just a black screen) and the files that I downloaded from youtube and changed the extension from .flv to .avi won't play either. The files with the changed extension have the "The file cannot be opened: The file is not a movie file" error message.

I verified and repaired permissions and restarted the computer but it doesn't work. Is it possible to uninstall Perian 1.1.3 (and how do you do it) and reinstall 1.1.1 (what I was working on)? Also would this fix the "the file is not a movie file" error message? I used to be able to play those files just fine, but for some reason it won't play them now. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Posted on Feb 3, 2009 7:32 PM

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6 replies

Feb 3, 2009 9:56 PM in response to Kamaji137

I had downloaded Flip 4 Mac and Perian in order to play .avi videos and everything worked fine. However I ran updates and installed the suggestions (so now I am running Perian 1.1.3 and other updated software). However, now I can't play the .avi files anymore (there is no sound or volume just a black screen)

With Perian installed, you should remove any Divx and xvid codecs from
/Library/QuickTime
and
~/Library/QuickTime
and the files that I downloaded from youtube and changed the extension from .flv to .avi won't play either. The files with the changed extension have the "The file cannot be opened: The file is not a movie file" error message.

They should play with the .flv extension

Feb 4, 2009 5:12 AM in response to Malcolm Rayfield

I am able to play the .avi files again, so going back to an earlier version of perian worked, however there is still the conversion problem.

I can play .flv files just fine now and I can play .avi files fine as well. However if I change the extension from .flv to .avi Quicktime displays the "this is not a video" message.

I currently have the following components in the library quicktime folder:
AppleInermediateCodec.component
AppleMPEG2Codec.component
Flip4Mac MWMV Advanced.component
Flip4Mac WMV Export.component
Flip4Mac WMV Import.component

Message was edited by: Kamaji137

Feb 4, 2009 10:39 AM in response to Kamaji137

You don't change the actual file by changing the extension! The file is still an flv file, not an avi file, thus if you say it is an avi file by changing the extension the program will take your word for it, look at the file and discover it is not an avi and can't open it as something it isn't. So it throws up the error. Some programs let you convert by doing a save as, with drop down lists to select what it was and what to convert it to. Others require you to export. But in any case you need to use a program to actually convert the file from the one sort of thing to the other.
Francine

User uploaded file
Francine
Schwieder

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