<wiseguy mode on>
.avi is NOT a video compression method.
it is a socalled
wrapper, or container, same as .mov on the Mac's side
wrapper means: this file contains (sic) ALL kind of media with all kind of compression
to give an impression: a .mov can contain a still picture, compressed as tiff or jpeg or pic, it contain a 3D scenery as a QTVR, a mov. can contain audio as aiff, mp3 (with some add on even as ogg), and of course many flavors of video, as mpeg1, mpeg2, mpeg4, h262, h264, sorenson
what a try to tell you is:
problem with .avi is a) it is low supported by Mac because it is natively a Microsoft/PC format and b) on the darker side they use sometimes some
very strange compression metheods, just to mention mvcd or mpeg2 with bitrates under 50b/s etc.pp.
so, finally
in case the .avi contains standard mpeg1 or mpeg2, you can use the methods above with mpeg2 playback plug-in from Apple and the highly recommended Streamclip tool for free
iMHD supports mpeg4 and dv of course
you CAN be lucky, if QTpro is able to playback the .avi, but that doesn't mean, you can convert it (in case of mpeg2)
<wiseguy mode off>
oooh,these .avis!!! hopefully they contain any standard compressed video 😉
