Mac OS, Quicktime Player

[clover]

Can anyone help me with this? Some bit torrent files I download can't be played with Quicktime. I'm using the latest version, plus I also installed Divx. I wanted to use Media Player Classic, but they don't have a Mac version. I'm on Mac OS, not MS. Can anyone help me with this? The error msg says that I don't have the appropriate compressor to play the file. I can hear audio, but there are totally no images in the screen. I wld greatly appreciate any advice I can get. Thanks.

[Tzurial]

I just convert all my avi's to mpegs. Though I dont know if thats the easiest way to get them to work >_<

use this first to convert/compress the sound
http://www.carrafix.com/DivXWMAConverter/

and this to finish it off
http://doctor.3ivx.com/

After that I have no problems whatsoever with playing them on quicktime

[Animaniac]

http://mplayerosx.sourceforge.net/

The only player you'll ever need on OS X.

[clover]

Thanks alot to both of you! :) I hope my problem will be solved.

[clover]

Umm, I'm facing a small problem. I downloaded mplayer and tried it out. I tried to watch Sailor Moon Live Action Part 1. After watching for abt 5 mins, I suddenly realised that there is something wrong. The audio wld actually play abt 30 seconds before the actual image came. So I was actually confused by the whole thing for a while, cos pp wld talk, but the video wld be showing something else entirely. Is something wrong with my computer? Or is it the avi file? Can anyone help me pls?

[Animaniac]

That shouldn't happen unless your computer is very old.

[Nothing Special]

Use MPlayer with these settings: MPlayer OS X prefs (http://home.mindspring.com/~chhom/MPlayerOSX_prefs.jpg)

This results in much better performance. I'm on an 800 MHz iBook and the same thing used to happen to me.

HTH

*edit*
-vop pp=hb:y/vb:a -autoq 6
^ cut & paste that.

[Ookla The Mok]

I still like using 3ivx to decode the video. Though I do use divx to parse the avi usually...

The ones that won't play in quicktime just using divx are probably ones with xvid fourccs. They'll play if you change the fourcc (to DX50) using something like divx tool. But 3ivx will play them without changing it.

And yeah mplayer will just play them, but if you like quicktime...

[clover]

Okie, thanks for all your advice! :) The file will play better if I restart my computer.

ookla> So sorry, I dun totally understand your post. Umm, I think cos I'm not very good with computer stuff. So I dun understand the terms you use, hahaha... It's a little complicating to convert the file right?

[Ookla The Mok]

Okie, thanks for all your advice! :) The file will play better if I restart my computer.

ookla> So sorry, I dun totally understand your post. Umm, I think cos I'm not very good with computer stuff. So I dun understand the terms you use, hahaha... It's a little complicating to convert the file right?

Eh heh.

OK there are 2 problems here.

1. MPEG-4 codec
2. avi file format

If you want to use QuickTime player, you need to deal with these two issues.

The easiest way to solve #2 is to install DivX for mac from divx.com. This will allow QuickTime to play avis with mp3 audio in them. You probably did this already.

That will also let you play most episodes' video. However, those that are encoded with XviD and have not been specifically made able to be played using DivX will not work still. There is an easy and a complicated way to fix that.

The easy way to fix #1 is to install the 3ivx codec from 3ivx.com--this will play back all sorts of MPEG-4 content.

The complicated way to fix #1 is to use something called "DivX Tool" which allows you to change a code in the avi file called a FOURCC. If you change it from XVID to DX50 then DivX player will play it without having 3ivx installed. You can find DivX Tool by searching on www.versiontracker.com

And then there is also somewhat complicated way to fix #2. This is to download DivX Doctor from doctor.3ivx.com and use it to change your avi files into mov files. If you then have 3ivx codec installed, these mov files will play back fine in QuickTime player, without having DivX installed. Most people find this too much of a pain to do nowadays, so you will probably just ignore it.

To sum up, the EASY way to play almost every avi episode, including XviDs, in QuickTime player:

Download DivX from divx.com and install it, and download 3ivx from 3ivx.com and install it.