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.
Download QuickTime 7.7.9 for Windows. Important: QuickTime 7 for Windows is no longer supported by Apple. New versions of Windows since 2009 have included support for the key media formats, such as H.264 and AAC, that QuickTime 7 enabled. All current Windows web browsers support video without the need for browser plug-ins. Why QuickTime Won't Play AVI Files? AVI (Audio Video Interleaved) is a container format designed by Microsoft to wrap audio and video stream together. The video in AVI file can be compressed by many kinds of codec, such as MJPEG (Motion JPEG), MPEG-1, MPEG-2, DivX, XviD, WMV and others.
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
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.
Quicktime Avi To Mp4
Can QuickTime play AVI movies? My QuickTime won't play AVI files, what should I do? There is no video playback of my AVI files on QuickTime?...... Millions of problems about the AVI playback with QuickTime have aroused on the Internet. Then, how to play AVI in QuickTime smoothly without any nuisance? Let's find it out together.
Well, in fact, QuickTime can play some AVI files. The premise is that the video and audio of the files must be compressed by a codec that QuickTime can recognize. If your AVI videos don't meet the conditions, you'll be able to play AVI files on QuickTime. And the truth is, playing AVI videos with QuickTime player is a bigger issue on Lion and Mountain Lion since QuickTime X has a worse support for AVI videos than the previous version.
It's quite frustrating that you can't play AVI on Mac with QuickTime player? Upset? No, you don't need to! Though QuickTime has some problems in playing AVI movies, there are some ways to fix the issue. And here are the best 2 ways to play AVI movies on QuickTime on Mac (including Mountain Lion).
Solution 1: Play AVI in QuickTime by converting AVI to QuickTime supported formats
The best way to play AVI video clips on QuickTime player is to change AVI to QuickTime highly compatible video formats like MOV, MP4 and M4V. In this way, you can not only watch AVI in QuickTime, but also transfer them to iPhone, iPad, iPod and more for playback on the go. To convert AVI movies for play with QuickTime, Aimersoft Video Converter for Mac is highly recommended. With it, you can fast finish the conversion and then play your AVI files on QuickTime without any troubles! This app also serves as a perfect AVI player for Mac. Download it and you'll see the main interface as below:
Quicktime Avi Extension
Simply drag and drop your AVI videos to the program, then select MOV from the format list as the output file format. Finally, click Convert to start converting AVI to MOV for QuickTime player. After the conversion, you can add the converted media files to QuickTime for playback without any hassles.
Solution 2: Play AVI in QuickTime with QuickTime components
Note: This method sometimes doesn't work.
The other way to play AVI clips on QuickTime is to install some components (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3526). For playing AVI files, you can install Perian so as to make QuickTime support AVI.
Quicktime Avi
However, Perian doesn't work on Lion or Mountain Lion. That means, if you want to play AVI movies in QuickTime with the help of Perian on Lion and Mountain Lion, you'll need to downgrade your Mac to the previous version. Some users find they can still play AVI with QuickTime on Lion and Mountain Lion with QuickTime X 10/QuickTime 7. And here is the way:
For QuickTime X 10: Please uninstall the components like DivX, Flip4Mac and Perian one by one. Then restart your Mac and reinstall Flip4Mac and Perian. After that, add your AVI files to QuickTime to see whether the problem has been fixed. If not, please go to MacintoshHD/Library/QuickTime to find all the extra codecs and delete XviD or 3ivX. Then the AVI files should be playable in QuickTime.
Quicktime Avi Player
For QuickTime 7: QuickTime 7 supports AVI files better than the latest version. You can install QuickTime 7 to see whether you have to luck.
Solution 3: Play AVI in QuickTime? No! Turn to AVI players for Mac
Quicktime Avi Converter
Since QuickTime has such a bad support for AVI videos, why not turn to some AVI players for Mac to play AVI on Mac? Great free AVI players include VLC Media Player and Mplayer.
However, you can only play AVI files on Mac with these players but can’t do anything else with your AVI movies on Mac, say, edit them in iMovie, transfer them to iTunes, etc. If you want to do more with your AVI videos, you'd better turn to Solution 1. By changing AVI format to QuickTime MOV, you've definitely made AVI a format that is highly friendly on your Mac.