[P1] OT Playing AVI files

[KhooCK]

Hi

I use a combination of software

For standard .mov and apple mpeg4, Quicktime 6 is the best
For asf files and wmv files (sometimes incorrectly labelled as avi files), I
use Windows Media Player 9

For avi files, a little explanation is required
The avi format does not have a fixed codec (ie like mp4) but a container
file type. It can have different codecs, the commonest being DivX; (yes,
with a semicolon). This is a rip off of Microsoft's original MPEG 4
implementation. The rip off occurred because Microsoft's implementation
(using Windows MediaPlayer) uses the asf file format which is proprietary.
By ripping the codec from microsoft but using the avi container format, it
freed users from having to use MS software to encode/decode. The fourCC
codes for these files are DIV3 and DIV4

As expected, MS shut down the sites promoting DIV3 and DIV4. In response,
the authors made a new version OpenDivX that didn't depend on MS's
MediaPlayer engine but actually decoded the bit stream directly. This is the
codec available from www.divx.com. The fourCC codes are DIVX and DX50.

3ivx is a similar effort but is more mac friendly. It can be got from
www.3ivx.com. The fourCC code is 3ivx.

In addition, there are also Indeo legacy codecs that are stored using the
avi format. These have fourCC codes that start with IV and are followed by
two digits eg 32, 42 etc.

How to play these files
First identify the fourCC codes. The easiest way to do this is to launch the
file using the latest version of VLC and get info (Apple I). There will be a
drop down menu that gives you info on the various streams (one for audio,
one for video and any extra streams)

For DIV3 and DIV4, use VLC. It is the best. You can convert it to
Quicktime's mov format with additional software but the results are always
poorer than non transcoded files.

For DX50 and DIVX, download the free software from www.divx.com and install
it. You can use either Quicktime or VLC. Personally I find VLC better but
you do need a fast processor. VLC decodes the bitstream directly and is more
processor intensive.

For 3IVX, download the codecs from www.3ivx.com. You can use Quicktime or
VLC.

For the Indeo codecs, it's a bit more complicated. You can get codecs for
them but they are classic only. Do a search for Indeo on versiontracker. I
run them in classic using Quicktime 3.

After all that, there are still a few avi files (a very tiny minority) that
you will still have a problem with. I find that these files also give
problems on WinPCs so I suspect it is an encoding problem but I only have
about 3-4 files with these problems so cannot tell for sure.

VLC is my main player for non Apple formats. The latest versions are faster
and have lesser requirements. VLC used to be very slow as it didn't utilise
the graphic chip (but depended on the processor instead). No problems of
late. An added bonus is that it can play DVDs without going through region
checking as it decodes the stream directly.

Hope this has helped

Rgds
Khoo