[X4U] Re: Playing avi files on QT

[Eugene]

On Tue, Jul 12, 2005 at 04:41:09PM CDT, Wayne Clodfelter <wayne at troutnc.com> wrote:
: On Jul 12, 2005, at 2:34 PM, Steven Rogers wrote:
: >On Jul 12, 2005, at 1:14 PM, x4u-request at listserver.themacintoshguy.com wrote:
: >
: >>How the heck do you play the avi files in Quicktime which is supposed
: >>to be such a multiple format player?
: >
: >AVI is not a video format, its a container format (kind of like 
: >QuickTime), so playing it depends entirely on what's inside. Asking 
: >that QT play it is kind of like demanding that a competent mechanic 
: >should be able to work on what's in your garage, just because it's in 
: >there. AVIs can contain just about anything - like weird little 
: >proprietary codecs made by people who create novelty devices, like the 
: >little pen cams. If you know where the file came from, that's usually 
: >enough info to figure out what codec you need.
: 
: Ok, Steven, and then what? Are you saying that by figuring out what 
: codec you need you can get the file to play in QT?
: If you can do that, I'm ready to sign up for classes <g>.
: As far as avis being weird little proprietary codecs (or containing 
: them), I don't really buy that, or they would give VLC and mPlayer 
: fits, too. With VLC and mPlayer, avis just work! Why can't QT do that, 
: too?
: Not why can't, I suppose; why don't they?

Pay attention to what Steven said.  The reason that QuickTime Player
doesn't play every AVI in the known universe because some AVIs are
created with lesser-known codecs unavailable to the OS X platform as
QuickTime plugins.  However, many of these lesser-knwon codecs *are*
available via other 3rd-party software, such as the cross-platform apps
VLC Player and mPlayer.  If you want to see these lesser-known codecs
supported in QuickTime Player, you have some options:

- beg Apple to add support for these lesser-known codecs

- beg the VLC/mPlayer developers to write QuickTime plugins for these
  lesser-known codecs

- pay someone to write QuickTime plugins for these lesser-known codecs

- learn to code, then do it yourself and write QuickTime plugins for
  these lesser-known codecs


-- 
Eugene
http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/