You can generally watch AVI videos on a Mac’s QuickTime player without any issues. All you have to do is open Quick Time Player located in the Applications folder and double click on the file. In fact, most of the latest versions of Quick Time support a wide variety of video formats and codecs. But in some cases, QuickTime may have difficulty playing the AVI file and may display errors like
Problems Associated With Running AVI on Mac Using QuickTime. When an AVI file is opened using QuickTime player, it scans the file to see which codecs have been used to encode the data in the container/AVI file. The AVI format video will play as expected if the video and audio in codec are compressed using a codec that exists in the QuickTime. Converting AVI to Mac QuickTime file format makes AVI video files playable on all of the native Mac video programs. To play AVI for Mac, here we will use a tool called Video Converter for Mac, which enables you to drag-and-drop and convert AVI into any of QuickTime friendly formats like MOV, MP4 and M4V quickly and easily.
‘The file.avi is not in a format that QuickTime understands. You may need to install additional software to open this file’.
Why does Quick Time have issues playing certain AVI files? Let’s find out reasons for the same.
- QuickTime can play various media files including audios, videos and images. It also supports various formats though MOV is the standard file used for QuickTime videos. AVI is also supported by the player but still some AVI files can’t be played directly using the basic free QuickTime player.
- AVI is the standard container on Windows like MOV is on the mac. AVI is an industry standard container and if you look on the internet you'll find much more avi files than mov files. Windows supports AVI and does not support MOV (without additional 3rd party software), OS X supports MOV and does not support AVI (without 3rd party software).
- When the AVI files are compressed using codecs not compatible with QuickTime
- Many DivX files have a .avi extension, but QuickTime is not designed to support DivX codec natively
Due to these reasons, QuickTime Player may have issues playing the AVI file and produce error messages. In order to solve this problem and play your AVI file smoothly, we provide some simple solutions.
1. Download necessary plug-ins
If you want to play the AVI file in Quick Time player, then you can install a plugin called Perian. Perian is a free component that is referred to as a Swiss Army knife for QuickTime player. With Perian installed, you can view various types of video formats that Quick Time Player otherwise doesn’t support. Although Perian is no longer being developed and does not work with QuickTime 10 or above, it can still be used with QuickTime 7 and such.
Quicktime Codecs For Mac Avira
2. Convert the AVI file to a format compatible with QuickTime player
Converting the AVI file to a file format that is compatible with QuickTime player is the next best solution. The best format you can convert the AVI file to is the MOV format as it is native to Quick Time. To do the conversion, there are many tools out there, but be sure to use a tool that is reliable and trustworthy.
Using an unreliable video converter can damage your AVI file and do more harm than good. Also, remember to have a backup of the original video file before converting just in case.
3. Use a universal media player such as VLC
The VLC media player is considered a Swiss army knife for all kinds of video files. Unless of course, you don’t have a restriction to play the AVI file only in QuickTime, this is the simplest and most effective solution.
Apple Quicktime Codec
So, as a first step, go ahead and install a VLC media player on your Mac device. Then, just open the AVI file that you wish to play in VLC and the file will be played effortlessly.
Repair AVI files
If you are converting an AVI file or any file for that matter to another format, it is important that you use reliable tools. Failing to do so can corrupt your video files and cause damage. This is why we stressed you to make a backup of the original video in Solution 2.
In other situations, compressing AVI files using unconventional methods can also cause damage to your files. In such cases, it is imperative that you repair the file and for this purpose, Remo Repair is the best pick. It is specially designed to repair AVI files no matter what the reason for corruption is. Unreliable conversion tools, unconventional compression techniques and many other cases of corruption can be repaired using this tool.
Another good thing about Remo Repair is that it can be used to repair AVI files on Mac as well as Windows systems.