Watching AVI on mac

I feel somewhat embarassed at asking this (as I used to be very up on Mac video software and what not) but here goes...
I am trying to watch some .avi files on my Powerbook with Quicktime 5 pro.....however it tells me that it does not have the right compression files...and I cannot d'l them.

So what to do? Is there another program I can use to either convert these files to .mov or .mpg (.mov prefered), or to view them? I am running 9.2.2, but I have OS X, does that make a difference? I don't think it should, but maybe it does.

Thanks:confused:

Interesting - I have the same thing in Mac OS X. Perhaps there is something that Apple aren't telling us about the "AVI" decompression? My AVI was created using a PC quickcam video clip.

I haven't found a solution yet.

In regards to AVI on mac, you often would convert it as AVI (audio/video interleaving) is a Windows specifically spec rather than an industry spec like MPEG or RealAudio/RealVideo. (a dated but informative blurb at http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/...?tw=multimedia gives a little more insight)

For OS X, I don't know of any specific decoders but http://swiki.cc.gatech.edu:8080/dvfx2000/91.history might be helpful. Given there is a decoder for Linux there must be one for BSD/Unix?

Hope this helps.

I had a bit more of a look around..

John McGowan's site had a couple of converters (http://www.jmcgowan.com/aviconvert.html) - so far the converters I've tried had either left out the sound or the video.

Nope - didn't work - apparently the avi is encoded with newer codecs than those available to the converter. Might have to look at multiple steps. Haven't checked the *nix stuff out yet. Still trying to get my head around Project Builder to put front ends on stuff.

Thanks for the help though.

I hear that there was a version of DivX for mac, and that it would play avi's in OS X. cnet.com had it in there d/l section, but I could never get it to d/l to my hard drive. Anyone have any experience with that?

cnet also has a converter, but it wouldn't convert audio or video either.

PS - I bought Quicktime Pro (still not sure if this was a waste or not) and it will not play avi either. Oh well

this site might help as well..........

http://www.macdivx.com



codec for OS X which was released january 2nd 2002:

http://divx.jamby.net/

Thanks, I d/led Mac DivX, and it works! I had to use DivX Doctor to get the Audio and Video working right, but it does work under 9.2.2.

Thanks again for all your help, AO wins again!

MAC users are able to view their porn once again :)

You say that like its a bad thing....