Error opening .avi movie file

I am having the same kind of problem .avi files. A dialog box pops up when I try to play some files indicating that something is missing in my Quicktime and that i need to down load the missing component. However it give no indication of what might be missing or what it wants. What's up with that?

Mew Gull

turtle007 & Mew Gull,

To Apple Discussions!

Open the file with QuickTime Player.
Open the Movie Info window (Command-i).
Note the name of the video codec used in the file.
Do a Google.com search for codec name +Mac and download one appropriate for your OS and computer.
Quit and relaunch QuickTime after installing the new codec.
Try the file again.

Thanks to QuickTimeKirk for the above info.

If the above does not work, then use VLC Media Player or Perian (AVI and FLV support)

My problem is that I cannot get it into quicktime. The dialog box always opens before the avi is loaded.

Tried Perian and it still would not load. The dialog box always opens before the avi is loaded.

VLC tried to load it but stopped short and would only play silence.

Any other ideas?

James Mol,

See if repairing permissions and/or restarting helps.

Tried it and still the same thing. Seems like there is no hope.

I sure wish someone would figure out a way to repair corrupted files.

Thanks for trying.

James,
There are plenty of ways to check for & repair "corrupted" files. If you think that is the problem then I suggest that you run permissions & repair disk directly from your Tiger DVD and/or use a stronger 3rd party utility like DW, TTP or Drive Genius.

To check for "corrupted" preferences try Preferential Treatment which is a FREE utility that does all the work for you.
Good luck!