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Unix Executable files - need help to open

Hi folks, sorry i have been looking through previous discussions re these type of files but its all well and truley above me. I have been given a video file and when copied to 'finder' it showed it was a unix executable file and it opened Terminal, again made no sense to me. I was informed to download MPEG Streamclip with no luck and the jargon I have read is goobledegook to me, sorry. Can anyone help pls in simple terms????

MacBook Pro, iPad\Apple TV2\iTouch 2 gen\iPod cl

Posted on May 2, 2012 2:51 AM

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21 replies

May 2, 2012 2:57 AM in response to Adie93

That typically happens when you receive a file that does not have an extension, so the OS doesn't know what it is. Select the file and choose File -> Get Info in the finder. What is shown in the Name & Extension field? If there is no extension, that's the problem. You would need to add an extension, though the problem is knowing what extension to add.

May 2, 2012 3:12 AM in response to Adie93

Not really, because I would presume that such software could open files of many different types. There are a lot of different video types, and thus many possible video file extensions. Where did the file come from? If it's from someone else, you need to ask them what type of file it is, and what extension it ought to have.

May 2, 2012 3:20 AM in response to Adie93

One thing you could try is to drop one of the files on to the vlc video player. If the file is truely a video file then odds are vlc will figure that out and be able to play it. It also has a menu to tell you info about the file so you could figure out what kind of file it actually is.


In the case of windows .wmv files you should add Flip4Mac. That would allow you to play those with QuickTime.


Similarly add Perian to add more power to QuickTime so that it too could possibly handle those files like vlc.

Unix Executable files - need help to open

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