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.avi = Frustrating!!!

R

RJP31484

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 19, 2005
184
0
Philadelphia, PA
Okay, i've done a lot of searching and reading on the forums for burning avi's to DVD's, and tried to follow as much of the advice as I could, but It still wont work. Basically, i've gathered that if you can get an avi to play in quicktime, you can burn it to a DVD using iDVD. However, I just cant get them to play!!! I downloaded and installed divx 5.2.1 for mac, and installed 3ivx(I think thats what it is called) And it still wont work. When I try to open it in Quicktime I get a message saying "QuickTime cannot open the file: "the video im trying to play.avi" the end-of-file was reached (-39)"
What does that mean?!
Is there an easier way to burn .avi's to a DVD?
Is there a program that will easily just convert these files to something I can burn in iDVD?
 
Go to library->quicktime and see what is in that folder, i have "AC3 Codec.component", and i can play most .avi's fine, although i used to be able to play all of them before my borther upgraded me to QT7, you just need to make sure you have all the available plug ins.

I have divX and 3ivx, and a few others i can't remember,

good luck
 
Thanks! I am at work now, but ill check that when I get home. If its not there, can I just google it and download it? Also, if I do this, and I can play them, can I just add the files to iDVD and burn them to a disk? Will this make a disk playable in a home DVD player?
 
I don't use iDVD, but I've dealt with .avi's from time to time. VLC is usually pretty good at playing them. As for Quicktime and .avi's, maybe you should see the doc.

I've used 3ivxD4 and Doctor II many times, successfully.
 
VanNess said:
I don't use iDVD, but I've dealt with .avi's from time to time. VLC is usually pretty good at playing them. As for Quicktime and .avi's, maybe you should see the doc.

...
Click to expand...
The link is fine as far as it goes, but it is somewhat misleading as to the nature of DivX. DivX is not "based on MPEG-4." It is based on Microsoft's rejected draft standard for MPEG-4. The standard accepted for MPEG-4 was based on Apple's QuickTime.
 
What I've done is simply converted avi's to a more compatible format (usually divx avi) using ffmpegx. One point to note: check the aspect ratio of the file in vlc and make sure you've got the same settings in ffmpegx, otherwise you might get a very distorted picture!
Good luck

YOJ
 
Is ffmpegx a free program? That would surely be the easiest way to go ; just convert them to somehting workable and go from there. I will try this tonight and then try burning them onto a dvd using iDVD. Ill let you know how it goes.. thanks everyone!
 
OK.. so I have no idea whats going on now... I put the AC3 Codec.component in the quicktime library first(it wasn't there). I still couldn't play them. I then tried to use VLC to play them.. and THAT didn't work EITHER!!! And that is really weird because I watched them using it before. Then, I hit get info on one of the files, and it tells me the size is "zero kb" ...?!?!... I KNOW that a few days ago, they were about 300-400 mb each, now they are zero? One of the three I am working with says it is 280 mb, (the others say zero) and I can start to play that one in both quicktime AND VLC, but it only plays for about 10 secs., and then says something about it seeking too far.

The only thing I can think of that would have messed them up is that I dragged them into iDVD to try and burn them onto a dvd just as they were a few days ago (when I could play them in VLC but not in quicktime) I told it to burn disc, and it showed a progress bar that said it was assembling the menu, and then another one that said it was encoding the video files.. it seemed like that bar was going to take a few hours, and it was late, so I went to bed, when I came back in the morning, iDVD had crashed, and made a coaster out of the DVD-r.

Hopefully using this new info. someone can help me out.
 
Usually when it says the end of the file was reached for an avi, it means it is not complete. I've noticed when I download an avi video, if you try opening it in quicktime before the download is finished that's the message you'll get.
 
aussiemac86 said:
Go to library->quicktime and see what is in that folder, i have "AC3 Codec.component", and i can play most .avi's fine, although i used to be able to play all of them before my borther upgraded me to QT7, you just need to make sure you have all the available plug ins.

I have divX and 3ivx, and a few others i can't remember,

good luck
Click to expand...

I'm not too knowledgable on QT codecs. I have downloaded divX and 3ivX. They are in my applications folder. I checked my QT folder in the library and it was empty. Do I just drag the 3ivX and divx folders into the QT one?
:confused:
 
I used to burn .avi files in DVD STUIDO PRO then all of a sudden whenever I tried importing them in the program would randomly shut down......
 
OnceUGoMac said:
I'm not too knowledgable on QT codecs. I have downloaded divX and 3ivX. They are in my applications folder. I checked my QT folder in the library and it was empty. Do I just drag the 3ivX and divx folders into the QT one?
:confused:
Click to expand...
It sounds as though your DivX codec is nowhere. You don't download the DivX codec, you download the DivX installer which places the codec components in /Macintosh HD/Library/QuickTime/ or ~/Library/QuickTime/.
 
Can some one help me... i wanna watch .avi on my DVD player? how do i do it?

Hey all,

I just dl'ed wedding crashers .avi format. And i want to be able tow atch it on my dvd player.... i have tried everything... cutting it into smaller peices and placing them into iMovie.. tried importing to iDvd, but nothing is working. Can some one please help me?!?!

Thanks yall

Rhys Perth Western Australia
G5 Tower Dual 2.5 4 gig DDR
 
Rhyz said:
Hey all,

I just dl'ed wedding crashers .avi format. And i want to be able tow atch it on my dvd player.... i have tried everything... cutting it into smaller peices and placing them into iMovie.. tried importing to iDvd, but nothing is working. Can some one please help me?!?!

Thanks yall

Rhys Perth Western Australia
G5 Tower Dual 2.5 4 gig DDR
Click to expand...
Download and install the DivX QuickTime codec.
 
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