Personally I wouldn't take the time to write something that long in defense of screwing customers out of an option simply because you and "video experts" think that AVI files are a dated format in need of being put down, and instead my response would simply be: I'd like QuickTime to support as many files as possible.
I respect both your opinions and your willingness or unwillingness to express them here. I was neither defending nor trying to offend Apple's position but merely express my own opinion that the AVI container is itself out of date and often employs outmoded data compression formats. If a user chooses to continue to use them, then they have a right to do so—even if it means having to "jump through more hoops" to do so. And while I agree with your position that it would be nice to retain compatibility with as many file/compression types as possible, it may not be possible to do so and still avoid the patchwork problems that plagued the classic QT software package after 10 years of development based on those very same lines or prompted the dropping of official support by the AVI originators 11 years ago. (I might also point out that QT X under Mavericks is still compatible with the AVI container and only forces conversion based on content. SEE THIS FILE. Test the previously linked file in QT X v10.3, QT 7, and QL. The question is, are the current problems with QT and QL a bug, a programming oversight, or a deliberate action by Apple.)
Your VHS tapes example would make sense if we were dealing with a physical change, but this is software. This is more akin to buying a PS4 in 2013 and Sony issuing an update in 2014 so that you could only play games from 2014, thereby screwing you out of the games you purcahsed a year ago. The simple fact is that my computer USED to be able to do something that it no longer can, and the only thing that changed is an OS X verison number (and that should annoy you as much as everyone else). Technological advancements like Mavericks shouldn't subtract features.
Sorry, I tend to look at things in terms of both physical and virtual realities. I.e., just because a mathematical problem has an infinite number of solutions and some of them belong to the set of imaginary numbers, I do not discount these solutions merely because I prefer to deal with solutions belonging to the set of real numbers. Again, while I can sympathize with your frusttration here, the fact remains that the AVI file type and many of the compression formats used in them are not native to QT and I don't understand why you feel that Apple should be responsible for the maintenance of third-party software that may or may not have been abandoned by their originators. In the case of abandoned software, this practice would seem to be financially irresponsible and in the case of still active software, such action would be illegal/a violation of copyright law.
I also find it strange that you think I should be annoyed regarding the inability use of AVI files. I personally don't use them and so have no opinion one way or the other. My only involvement is on the analysis of files sent me and the finding of ways to view them on occasion. Since I make virtually all of my own content, it is easiest for me to target iTunes managed content for IOS/TV devices whioch are also compatible with QT X/7 based apps on my computer and shared to my online web sites. My only major point of frustration at this time is that certain common Apple compression formats are also not being properly supported under Mavericks (e.g., AIC, Animation, DV streams, PNG, certain ProiRes 422 codecs, etc.). Hence, my current question as to whether the current issues are bugs, oversights, or deliberate in nature. Unfortunately, technologicaly advances can sometimes preclude features until or unless corrected assuming the features are not mutually exclussive.
As it stands now, the QT release in Mavericks is buggy and barely survives scrubbing through a 200MB MP4 file without dramatic lag. In fact, before Mavericks, with Perian, QT played AVI files better than Apple's own file types. And as a paid developer, I find it very frustrating when I'm told what I should and shouldn't do my computer. Yesterday I could easily quicklook at any video file on my computer, and now I've been limited.
Buggy barely describes the situation. I tend to think of it as more of a disaster. Mavericks is also now forcing Subler to generate a secondary Photo-JPEG video track which, if wrapped in an MP4 file container, is now considered "out of spec" by QT 7 and, while QL now allows the preview of multiple video tracks, will not preview the Photo-JPEG track in the MP4 container but will in an M4V file container. In short, there is siply too many things going on here to yet determine what is an intentional change and what isn't. Based on current tests, it appears that as many third-party software providers may have been caught "off base" by these changes as were ther regular users. At this point I am just hoping that all dissatisfied users are reporting all of the "BUGS" through the proper feedback channels in order to get the programmers back to work fixing things. Unfortunately with all of the noted (and as yet undiscovered QT 7 Pro editing) issues, my guess is that it will take some time and a number of revisions to correct matters—assuming they can even be corrected.
