Playing AVI files on Snow Leopard

Question

Level 1

24 points

Playing AVI files on Snow Leopard

I am running Snow Leopard on both an iMac and a MacBook Pro. On the MBP I can play an AVI file. On the iMac, I cannot. I get an error saying "The document “xxxxx.avi” could not be opened. The movie is not in a format that QuickTime Player understands."

What could be different between my two machines?

MacBook Pro, iMac, iPhone, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Oct 6, 2010 5:54 PM

Answer 1

Niel

Community+ 2026

Level 10

756,437 points

Oct 6, 2010 5:57 PM in response to vbmike73

What could be different between my two machines?

It's probably whether or not Perian is installed. If the AVIs came from different sources, there may be no Mac codec which can open the second one; AVI is a container, not a format.

(54185)

Answer 2

nachdenki

Level 3

649 points

Oct 6, 2010 6:45 PM in response to vbmike73

easiest way would be to download and install VLC media player, it plays everything.

if you need to use quicktime you need to get the proper codecs for the video. for that you need to know what format the video is (divx, xvid, ... ?)

Answer 3

vbmike73 Author

Level 1

24 points

Oct 6, 2010 7:06 PM in response to Niel

Awesome. You nailed it. I noticed the Perian on the MBP a few times, and I knew I had downloaded it for some reason, but it was a while ago, and I had forgotten what it was. I just DL it and problem solved. Thanks!!