I'm a newbie both to the mac world and to the divx/avi realm. I downloaded an avi file but I can't get it to play at all (as in blank screen, no audio, same when I skip forward). I've tried QuickTime, downloading codecs for QuickTime (DivX and 3ivX), VLC, MPlayer and I get the exact same result on all of them (blank window and no sound). What am I doing wrong and how can I fix it? Thanks.
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Help with Playing AVI on Mac OS X
- Thread starter jakal17
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I did try MPlayer and there was the same problem- blank screen, no sound. Also, I download DivXDoctor and added the AVI file to it. But when I start the decoding process it seems to hang. Does it usually take a while (I have make stand-alone movie checked)? And I have also read that DivXDoctor solves audio issues, not video ones. So would it still apply to my situation?
Try VLC Player - It's the only one I can get to work with AVI, and it works flawlessly.
VLC Player
Best of luck!
VLC Player
Best of luck!
I don't think Winamp3 is avaliable for the MAC OS, but I know if you go to www.divx.com and you will have no problems.
jakal17:
If it won't play in VLC (or any of the other players you mentioned), it's either a very corrupt file, or it's not encoded in Divx--with both the latest (5.1) Divx codec and 3ivx installed in Quicktime, QT Player will play just about anything, and the handful of oddball files it won't play are handled by VLC and MPlayer.
Are you sure it's a DivX file? Keep in mind that .avi files are just containers, and can have many different kinds of video encoding. The thing to do would be to open it in QuickTime Player and do a "get info", then look at the video encoding. If it says Divx or something like that, then there's got to be something wrong with the file (maybe it's even misidentifying the video type).
If, however, it says "Indeo 50" (or 4.0 or 3.2) or i263, then it's using a different kind of encoding that is not supported by QT Player in X or VLC/MPlayer. Those codecs are rare these days, but were quite popular a few years back, so you still come across files occasionally.
The Indeo codecs were Intel codecs that aren't supported any more, but there were codecs for QuickTime under OS9 (never ported to X); if you can find the codecs and install them, QT Player in Classic will play Indeo files. i263 is a stupid Intel hack of the more open h263 (still used by QuickTime for very low bandwidth video, in fact) videoconferencing codec. It was never supported on the Mac, although I've gotten files to play using WMP in Virtual PC.
Again, the Indeo and i263 codecs are, at this point, really the only video codecs that I've been unable to play on a Mac under X, so if its not one of those I'd assume you've got a bum file.
If it won't play in VLC (or any of the other players you mentioned), it's either a very corrupt file, or it's not encoded in Divx--with both the latest (5.1) Divx codec and 3ivx installed in Quicktime, QT Player will play just about anything, and the handful of oddball files it won't play are handled by VLC and MPlayer.
Are you sure it's a DivX file? Keep in mind that .avi files are just containers, and can have many different kinds of video encoding. The thing to do would be to open it in QuickTime Player and do a "get info", then look at the video encoding. If it says Divx or something like that, then there's got to be something wrong with the file (maybe it's even misidentifying the video type).
If, however, it says "Indeo 50" (or 4.0 or 3.2) or i263, then it's using a different kind of encoding that is not supported by QT Player in X or VLC/MPlayer. Those codecs are rare these days, but were quite popular a few years back, so you still come across files occasionally.
The Indeo codecs were Intel codecs that aren't supported any more, but there were codecs for QuickTime under OS9 (never ported to X); if you can find the codecs and install them, QT Player in Classic will play Indeo files. i263 is a stupid Intel hack of the more open h263 (still used by QuickTime for very low bandwidth video, in fact) videoconferencing codec. It was never supported on the Mac, although I've gotten files to play using WMP in Virtual PC.
Again, the Indeo and i263 codecs are, at this point, really the only video codecs that I've been unable to play on a Mac under X, so if its not one of those I'd assume you've got a bum file.
Re: Must be corrupt file
In any case, that still means that 3ivx thinks it knows how to play it, so something's funky.
I also forgot about the MSMPEGv42 and a couple of slightly different related codecs; they're funky, proprietary versions of the MPEG4 codec that Microsoft tried to jam out the door early in the development process, but they were thankfully short lived. QT Player can't usually handle them, but VLC has no problem.
In any case, getting back to your actual question, there's usually no easy way to tell if a file is corrupt before you download it. I'm assuming you're on a slow connection, so it matters, but you can just try to play the partially downloaded file in VLC (which is more tollerant) or QT Player and see what happens.
You'll usually get a somewhat funky-looking image, and seeking can cause a lot of weird visual effects (QT Player also will probably take a while to open it--this is normal) but if you get something that looks like video the file is probably fine.
Works for me, anyway.
Actually, Quicktime telling you it's a 3ivx file just means that the 3ivx component is handling the video--the actual video stream could be in 3ivx, DivX, or XviD format. When you have both the DivX and 3ivx components installed, the DivX component takes over problematic MP3 audio tracks and causes them to work fine, while 3ivx usually ends up handling the video (and doing it well). How exactly this works, I'm not sure, but it works.
In any case, that still means that 3ivx thinks it knows how to play it, so something's funky.
I also forgot about the MSMPEGv42 and a couple of slightly different related codecs; they're funky, proprietary versions of the MPEG4 codec that Microsoft tried to jam out the door early in the development process, but they were thankfully short lived. QT Player can't usually handle them, but VLC has no problem.
In any case, getting back to your actual question, there's usually no easy way to tell if a file is corrupt before you download it. I'm assuming you're on a slow connection, so it matters, but you can just try to play the partially downloaded file in VLC (which is more tollerant) or QT Player and see what happens.
You'll usually get a somewhat funky-looking image, and seeking can cause a lot of weird visual effects (QT Player also will probably take a while to open it--this is normal) but if you get something that looks like video the file is probably fine.
Works for me, anyway.