I'm getting a black screen - no video

iMovie was able to play these back fine in the iMovie Project Browser PRIOR to upgrading to Mac OS X 10.7.

What DIVX codec version are you using and what audio compression format is used in your file? Unable to duplicate your work flow with my "older" DIVX decoder under either OS X.6 or X.7 in iMovie '11 app. AVI file container is compatible if video content is "edit" compatible. Do edited projects using such files as you describe export properly. Can you provide a short sample AVI source file for examination/analysis?

I know this is an old thread but I recently had the same problem with the black screen on older Quicktime movies.

I too was able to resolve the issue by simply reinstalling Perian (version 1.2.3). Once I reinstalled it, the movies played correctly. Thanks for getting me on the right track with figuring this out.

If you go to Window Menu > Show Inspector what does it say under the Format: field?

It may be a codec problem of some sort.

I've got a bunch of video from a Flip mino (First gen.) camera. That uses 3ivx codec wrapped in an AVI wrapper. I'm using DivX now to get those things to playback properly under Lion. Perian didn't quite do it, at least in iMovie. And neither did the Xvid playback component. Sounds like you got it sorted it out really quickly though, so kudos to you. Good Luck!

Perian didn't quite do it, at least in iMovie.

Unless Apple has changed something recently, I believe third-party codec components have been unuseable in iMovie since the introduction of iMovie '08. (I.e., only edit compatible compressing component can be used in iMovie '08/'09/'11). iMovie HD and earlier versions only required the source files to be "conversion" compatible since non-edit compatible compression formats were automatically converted as part of the import process.

Well, it's funny you say that, because when I do Reveal in Finder on those clips from the Flip mino, they are all AVI and come up as Xvid format as the codec (according to the QuickTime Inspector). iMovie was able to play these back fine in the iMovie Project Browser PRIOR to upgrading to Mac OS X 10.7. Afterwards, no dice. The reason?! It's the 3ivx QuickTime component. I had to pull it out of the Mac HD > Library > QuickTime folder otherwise crashes left, right, and straight ahead every time I would launch iMovie. 3ivx is NOT compatible with Lion. However, DivX is compatible with Lion and it will honor the 3ivx MP4 AVI files and allow me to view them. To test this I uninstalled DivX attempted to use Perian, no dice. Uninstall Perian and tried the old Xvid QuickTime component, no dice (well, it would play a few frames, stutter, die, lockup iMovie). Went back to DivX and the videos play correctly from the Project Browser. So it seems like there is some flexibility regarding what iMovie will ingest and keep in its orginal format. That's what I'm noticing anyways with my work computer which got upgraded to Lion.

What DIVX codec version are you using and what audio compression format is used in your file?

http://www.divx.com/en/software/mac/player (I don't have this installed on my home computer, but I can maybe reply to this posting tomorrow morning after I see what codecs it reports it can playback, apparently one of them is 3ivx encoded MP-4 files on 10.7.1)

Do edited projects using such files as you describe export properly.

Yes, I am able to Export Movie..., Share to Media Browser, Export using QuickTime, etc. No glitches, no missing still images, no missing audio, no stutters on playback. The only thing it won't do is allow me to change the speed faster/slower without first converting the clip that's the only outward visible sign that this isn't a Apple Intermediate Coded format .mov file. So I'm guessing that it's an h.264/MP4 which is edit compatible with iMovie, but it doesn't have any native capability to play it back with out the DivX QuickTime Component installed under 10.7.1.

I know this isn't quite a sample, but I think I can post the raw AVI file up on a webserver where you can pull it down if needed.

http://etc1.cc.rochester.edu/likness/VID00004.AVI

Here's the sample file as promised. This is how the codec format appears in QuickTime X Inspector under OS X 10.7:

http://etc1.cc.rochester.edu/likness/VID00004.AVI

Here's the sample file as promised.

File does not yet appear to be available. Downloader opens, says it is preparing download, and then, after a while, closes with a "timed out" message. Will try again later/periodically throughout the day.

Sorry 'bout that. As it turns out anyone trying to go to that webserver gets a 504 Error and I think it's a direct results of Firewall Rules set at the edge of the network on our optical nodes. So I'm going to need to figure out another way to share it out to you.

Sorry 'bout that. As it turns out anyone trying to go to that webserver gets a 504 Error and I think it's a direct results of Firewall Rules set at the edge of the network on our optical nodes. So I'm going to need to figure out another way to share it out to you.

Understood. Have downloaded the v7 DivX package but am holding off any installation until I have sample file to test/examine. Another question... You indicate the new decoder is iMovie compatible. What about the encoder? Is it also now accessible from within latest version of iMovie?

Sorry to have been silent for so long, I had to find an alternative website that had sufficiently large file sizes available and wouldn't touch the format of the video on upload/download. I got a file shared now through Micro$oft Skydrive:

Try downloading this AVI file

After reading up about the DivX encoder, that is an extra cost item not included in the Free download from the divx website. So decoding is free (and they put a little water mark in the corner every time you playback to remind you just how free it really is). But encoding is not free and I don't find an encoder anywhere in the options for Export using QuickTime.

Downloaded your file without problem. Swapped DivX component with Parian, removied and reinstalled a half dozen times, rebooted system between installs but still no joy. Unable to duplicated your success in importing your Xvid/ADPCM AVI directly to iMovie empoying menu import, drag and drop to event, via iPhoto, or by "backdoring" at the Finder level. Normal work flow of manual conversions still works fine and the QT X "Share to iMovie" also worked. Can anyone else here duplicate/confirm compatibility of DivX components with iMovie?

Video was progressive 30 fps Advanced Simple Profile/L-5 MPEG-4 @ about 3.5 Mbps with ADPCM audio sampled at 44.1 KHz/176 Kbps mono.

Now isn't that weird. I'm stumped too. I'll have to keep an eye on this as the next version of Lion Update comes out (10.7.2) see if there's any change at all.

One side note relating back to DivX Encoding. I find I can use DivX Encoder but only through QuickTime Player Pro 7 when I click on the Export: pulldown menu after choosing to export a clip. There's an encoder option there for DivX. So I just exported that same clip to .divx and attempted to import it, under Mac OS X 10.7.1 and iMovie 9.0.4. I unchecked optimize the clip on import, and imported it. iMovie '11 optimized it anyways and now it's a .mov file in the Event Library when I reveal in finder. File size is 60MB versus the original .divx file size of 5.5MB and the AVI file size of 13MB. Just some measurements or more testing to throw in there.