AVI is a very popular video format which is widely used today. However, many QuickTime users just realized that it's always not easy to play AVI files with QuickTime player, especially when you have upgraded to the latest OS X 10.11 El Capitan. What's the matter? Why can't QuickTime play AVI videos? Just read on to find the reason and 3 possible solutions to solve your problems without any trouble.
- Yup Quicktime X will not open.avi files but VLC or Quicktime 7 will. SantaRosa2.2 macrumors regular. Mar 7, 2012 221 3 Somewhere in Florida. Jun 13, 2013 #3.
- AVI stands for Audio Video Interleave and is a popular resource interchange file format that has been developed by Microsoft. The format was first introduced in 1992 and is still commonly used to contain video files. QuickTime and AVI. Just like every other media format, AVI is also based on a codec system that is preloaded in Windows Media Player.
- QuickTime is a player with advanced tools to correct the compatibility, fluidity and improve the videos' quality. However, when a video file has been damaged, QuickTime will not repair the damage. Q: 'How can I Repair Damaged MOV File Using VLC.' The VLC player offers the option to repair damaged video files with an automatic '.AVI' extension.
As you know, you might not be able to open an MKV file on QuickTime (or other formats like FLV/AVI). Therefore, you can consider changing the default player for the file instead of QuickTime to another player like VLC. For this, just select the video file, right-click, and go to the 'Get Info' option.
An AVI is a free and open source container format. It can hold different types and unlimited number of video, audio, picture or subtitle tracks in one file. If you can't play AVI with QuickTime in Mac OS X, it's probably the video or audio codec problem. Frankly, there are a lot of options to help you play an AVI file in the Mac OS X (EI Capitan and Yosemite included), here are some solutions:
Solution 1: Convert AVI in Mac OS X
If you have a lot of AVI files and want to play them on more players like the iPhone, iPad or iPod, you'd better convert the AVI to other formats like the MP4, MOV, M4V or etc. Here, I'll recommend the Video Converter for Mac (EI Capitan and Yosemite compatible), which enables you to convert an AVI to any popular video format for various players, devices and applications. For QuickTime, you can convert the AVI to an MOV file that is associated with QuickTime. See more tips below.
Step 1: Drag the AVI files onto the interface.
Step 2: Choose any format or device you want (most popular format or devices are also supported here).
Step 3: Simply hit Convert at the lower-right corner of its interface.
Solution 2: Play AVI in QuickTime by installing Perian plugin
Quicktime Play Avi Files
The QuickTime player is mostly used in Mac OS, if you don't want to use the first solution to convert the AVI files to QuickTime compatible formats, you can try this solution, but no 100% work guarantee.
Perian, is a great open-source QuickTime component that allows playback of different video formats that cannot be played natively on your Mac computer. If you want to use QuickTime as your main video player, you may choose to download Perian because it provides the necessary codecs or components that will allow you to play AVI on Mac. If you have QuickTime 7, you may be glad to discover that it can actually play AVI files without needing any additional plug-ins and codecs.
What you need to know before downloading Perian:
1. The latest version 1.2.3 of Perian doesn't work on Mac OS X Mavericks, let alone Yosemite and Mac 10.11 EI Capitan because Perian requires installation of quicktime 7, which doesn't exist for Mavericks and above. It also doesn't work on Mac OS X Mountain Lion.
2. With a Mac running Mac OS X 10.7, say, Lion, you have to downgrade to the previous version, say 1.2.2. The version of 1.2.3 of Perian does not support QuickTime 10 in Lion and fails to fix the loss of audio after one second in xvid files with ac3.
3. Before installing Perian, you need to remove all QuickTime Components installed on your Mac, like FFusion, Xvid Delegate, 3ivX, DivX, DivX Decoder, XviD, msmpeg4v1, msmpeg4v2, AviImporter, EX_M4S2, Casio AVI Importer, AC3 Codec, and MatroskaQT.
4. For a Mac running Lion or Mountain Lion, converting AVI video to QuickTime is highly recommended.
Solution 3: Play AVI with a AVI player Mac
The VLC media player, is an excellent open-source media player that is known for supporting a wide range of audio and video files. Unlike other media players which have limited format-support, you will be surprised that VLC can play a video or audio file that you didn't even know existed. If your OS is Snow Leopard or higher, installing VLC is definitely a good choice especially if you only plan on watching AVI files on your computer.
Cons of this AVI player (VLC media player):
1. VLC player doesn't play AVI videos with high qualities.
2. VLC player doesn't support EI Capitan.
If you’ve always wanted a simple way to combine movies into a single file, look no further than QuickTime Player. There’s no need to buy the Pro version — the bundled free version is fully capable of handling the task.
A lot of times when you’re dealing with video you run into a situation where you want to merge a movie file with another but aren’t concerned with things like transitions or titles. Using a video editor like iMovie does the job but it’s far too much effort for something so simple. Luckily, hidden in the standard free version of Apple’s QuickTime Player is the ability to drag & drop video clips together.
Quicktime And Avi Files
To start off, open a video in QuickTime. Now position the program’s playhead where you would like your next video clip to be inserted. It can be at the beginning, anywhere in the middle, or right at the end. Once you have done that, locate your second movie file in Finder. Select the file and drag & drop it right onto the QuickTime window. Playing the whole movie will reveal that the clips have now been combined and are acting as if they were a single video. This trick can be applied with any number of files — you’re not limited to just two.
Quicktime Avi Files
Here’s where things get kind of tricky. Since only QuickTime Pro has the ability to save movies from the File menu, we don’t have the luxury of using that option here. Instead, you have to close the video. Only then will you be greeted with the option of saving your merged file. Click the Save button and, in the dialog box that comes up, choose “Save as a self-contained movie.” It gets messy if you don’t choose this setting, so make sure you don’t skip it before continuing. Click Save once more and you will have a merged movie created entirely with the free version of QuickTime!
Quicktime Play Avi Files
One last bit of information for anyone who is curious… you can combine any video format that QuickTime supports (both out-of-the-box and with the help of plugins like Flip4Mac and Perian). So a .mov file can be dragged on top of a .avi file, a .mp4 can be merged with a .wmv, and so on. Varying video resolutions can also be combined, although the smaller file will be anchored to the top-left corner with black filling the rest of the frame. It would be nice if it scaled to fit the larger video’s resolution, but that’s getting picky. Free is free, right?