.avi Player?

[uc pseudonym]

Can anyone help me find a simple, easily-downloadable player that will handle .avi files properly? I've glanced about a bit, but haven't had the time to invest in a serious search. I don't need anything very powerful, and I'd even take an idiot-friendly set up. All I'd ever utilize it for are a few minor files I need to handle from time to time.

[glitch1501]

a player that plays almost ever avi file with basicly any codec out is vlc,
IMO its great for everything windows media player cant

http://www.videolan.org

[Bobtheduck]

It's really not a matter of what player you're using, but what codecs you have... On windows, even quicktime can play .avi files with the right codecs... Not on Mac, though.. You have to "convert" the files which takes up a lot of HD space... At least on OS9. On windows, WMP handles all the .avi's fine except that you need the right codecs... That can include video and audio codecs. New codecs come out all the time, so it's a matter of staying updated. A good collection of codecs is "Tsunami codec pack" but you may have to pay money for it. There should be a codec pack out there that's free and has a nice selection of codecs

[inkjet1987]

I use DivX, that seems to work with everything.

[Ashley]

I'm with Inkjet--I use DivX more than anything. It's free, small, and works pretty bug-free.

[Retten]

Last I heard DivX has spyware 0_0 I use BSPlayer very easy on your system and plays most everything but like Bob said its really just the codecs you need

[shooraijin]

> Not on Mac, though.. You have to "convert" the files which takes up a lot of HD space... At least on OS9.

No, QuickTime 6 plays .avi just fine (OS X *and* OS 9), as long as -- just like Windows -- you have the proper codecs (many of which are natively available for Macs, including DivX). I play .avi fine on my QT5 OS 9.1 PowerBook as well ... for that matter, AVI support was in some form or another in QT as far back as QT3.

Moreover, if QuickTime isn't cutting it for you, VLC should be an able alternative and has been available in a Macintosh version for a very long time.

[Bobtheduck]

I installed the divx codec for mac os 9.whatever it was, and it had to CONVERT the file first, which means it made a duplicate file. I'm not talking about the basic AVI format, which is a horrible format, but Divx... It did not work right. So, even with the right codec, it still didnt' work right... So, I have no clue why it worked for you and not for me. The instalation of the codec created a program that duplicated the file and turned it into a quicktime file. If you want to know where I got the codec from, I got it from the source: http://www.divx.com. Perhaps I was using an older version of quicktime... So, when was QT6 released? Does it have a true full screen mode? That bugged me on quicktime, that there wasn't true full screen... Or, if there was, it was very hard to find, because I sure never found it (on mac or on my windows machine)

BTW, Divx doesn't NEED to have spyware... There are 3 versions. Two with extra features, one that's stripped down. The stripped down one is free with no adware. The free one with all the features has spyware... The other one without the spyware costs money, but you get some set of features...

[shooraijin]

You're almost saying that the codec was forcing you to convert the DivX file to QuickTime, which doesn't sound like a proper QuickTime codec but rather a standalone converter or player. The DivX codec I was using, which was downloaded from DivX themselves (this would have been about a year and a half ago), played in Movie Player transparently, as did the other OS 9 QT codecs I was using (Indeo Classic and a few others, which sat in my Extensions folder). QT6 has been out for some time, as I was using it on my OS 9 7300 back then.

There has always been a full screen mode since QT4, but only in QuickTime Pro (Mac and Windows).

[ThaKladd]

most players play .avi files... I'll recomend Winamp3, Windows media player and Real One player... all are free...

[Bobtheduck]

There has always been a full screen mode since QT4, but only in QuickTime Pro (Mac and Windows).

That's why I stick to WMP unless I'm trying to view partial Divx downloads, then I use divx. None of this "Buy me for the REAL stuff" It's true freeware...

But, MS did give the mac crew the shaft on that one. It bugged me to no end that the mac version of WMP only played 2 file types (WMA, WMV... wouldn't even play MP3s) and I'm not even sure if it had a playlist... I know that the quicktime I was using there didn't. I had to ask around to find a Jukebox program... XP comes witha Jukebox (the windows version of WMP) for free. It does all sorts of cool stuff, including equalizing, changing the speed, and fixing the color on the video. I'm NOT happy, however, with the snap thing in full screen mode... It was better in WMP 8. When it switched to 9, they screwed that up.

And, BTW, the codec I also got from divx.com did exactly what I said. It went through a conversion and saved a secondary file before it played. I suppose none of the mac stations at my school had the full version of quicktime. Maybe that prevented it from using third party codecs? Whatever it was, that's what happened.

I don't use quicktime EVER. If I get quicktime files, I use a proggie called "Jet Audio" which is free and has full screen mode for free.

[andyroo]

I use Winamp 2 for all my media on the computer. Just have to add the plug-ins for certain capabilities....

[uc pseudonym]

Somewhere along the line I downloaded a bunch of codecs, though when and where I'm not sure. In any case, even WMP will run every .avi file I need to run perfectly, so my problem is solved. Thanks.