Play Almost Any Video File On Your Mac
In my circle, I’ve had a lot of friends recently purchase Apple computers. One of the first questions that they ask me is: “How do I play this video? It’s not showing up properly!” My friends, you have come to the right guy, because I have quite the toolbox for you.
There are 3 very important applications that every Mac user should download. These applications will allow you to play almost every video file on your mac, and make you a happier, more entertained person.
Just follow these steps in order:
1. Download Perian – This is the ultimate Quicktime addition, as it adds the following codecs:
AVI, FLV (Flash Video), MKV, “MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivX, H.264, FLV1, FSV1, VP6, H263I, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), MPEG Layer II Audio [...] AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3″.
Wow… that’s a lot. Perian will install an preference pane, which will allow you to check for updates automatically, and tweak audio settings. Perian is Free, and is available from Perian.org.
2. Download Flip4Mac WMV – Microsoft stopped supporting the Windows Media Player a short while ago, and told the Flip4Mac guys to take over. They have done so with their Flip4Mac WMV components. After the download, it will install the components on your computer. If you want to give them money, they’ll reward you with extra importing and exporting functions.
By this point, Quicktime should be able to play most media formats.
If not, then try to…
3. Download VLC – This is the “swiss army” knife of video players, and can handle most video formats out there. This is my go-to if my Perian-Flip4Mac-Quicktime system doesn’t work. There are so many formats supported, I’m not going to write them out. VLC is free, and can be downloaded from videolan.org.
Hopefully these 3 items will get your video files playing. If all fails, try exporting a video file out of Quicktime to a format that Quicktime can understand, like MPEG4. Good luck!
Optionally use NicePlayer as Quicktime “replacement”. It’s got a much nicer, more minimalistic interface!
Also, if you install Perian, you can eliminate the problems that inevitably crop up every time Adobe updates its Flash Player by avoiding Flash Player like the plague.
Don’t forget mPlayer(http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/news.html) too!
Sometimes when VLC or quicktime crash due to a bad video, mPlayer will play it just fine.
I second Chris’s recommendation for NicePlayer. I’ve been much happier using that for watching videos compared to Quicktime.
Also, like Darrell, I prefer MPlayer to VLC on the Mac. It tends to handle subtitles and scaling better for me. Specifically, get the alternate builds here: http://www.haque.net/software/mplayer/mplayerosx/builds/
They are more recent than what is on the official download site.
It should be noted that Perian is not currently supported on Leopard. It will sort of work for some things… but not nearly as complete a solution as it is on Tiger. Anxiously awaiting the update.
[...] Play almost any video file on your Mac – MacApper [...]
I have trouble playing an avi file captured using Hypercam 2 on the iMac (OS 10.5 Leopard) even with Perian 1.0 installed as a QT component. The playback windows shows just a white screen.
Furthermore, when I try to play back the same file using VLC (VLC 0.8.6d) I also have problem. The playback window now shows just a black screen with the error message “computer too slow?”!!
Funny thing is that the video clip plays fine on my PC (Windows XP) with QT 7. I’m a new Mac user and bought the iMac expecting everything to be a breeze, but everything seems to be the same in the computer world–workarounds are needed to make them work properly. Alas! The dream that I had is somewhat broken in buying into the Mac dream…especially since I splurged on a 24″ iMac.
As of February 6, 2008, Perian supports Leopard.
[...] played in QuickTime (and that’s pretty much anything, thanks to MacApper’s handy “Play Almost Any Video File On Your Mac” guide) can be added to your iTunes library within seconds. The application can even fill in [...]
vlc rocks, quicktime sucks, that’s a matter of fact.
vlc can play almost all videos, and even if the gui is bad, is a great program
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Thanks to your useful and easy to follow blog, I finally got my mac to play the avi files. THANKS & keep up the good work.
Aimersoft Video Converter for Mac is the optimal Mac Video Converter for portable players. With this best Mac Video Converter, you can easily convert your favorite videos for iPhone, iPod, PSP and other players on Mac OS X.
cool staff ,thanks for sharing. to be true, it is really hard to watch videos on mac ,unless they are MP4,M4V AND M4P video
This is good & tried all these previous to seeing this… but I wanna be able to Convert any video, not Watch any video. If I care enough about a video to actually download it, instead of just watching it online, then I want to convert it into one of those movie formats that’s usually compatible with Macs & pc’s, so that I don’t have to mess around with the file latter when I decide to do something else with it.
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[...] Play Almost Any Video File On Your Mac [...]
[...] Sony HDR-XR550V 240GB High Definition HDD Handycam Camcorder Sony HDR-XR550V 240GB High Definition HDD Handycam Camcorder Sony HDR-XR550V 240GB High Definition HDD Handycam Camcorder Capture stunning 1920 x 1080 high-definition video and 12 Megapixel still images with the HDR-XR550V, which employs an "Exmor R" CMOS sensor for superior low-light performance and a 240GB internal hard disk drive. Optical SteadyShot image stabilization with Active Mode and 3-way Shake Canceling enables you to capture remarkably smooth video from wide angle to full telephoto shooting. HDR-XR550V record movies in AVCHD 1920 x 1080 format (highest quality). iOrgsoft provides HD cam users with excellent software Video Converter for Mac, it can convert AVCHD/MTS/M2TS footage from different types of cameras of Sony(including HDR-XR550V handycam), Canon, JVC, Panasonic, etc to MP4,MOV,DV,M4V that can be put into iMovie,FCE,FCP for further editing on Mac OS X. Video Converter for Mac features: * Convert Video for Apple Devices * Optimized Presets for Video Players * Convert Videos for Apple Software *Output Impressive HD quality. *Joining/merging/combining capability of AVCHD/MTS/M2TS files on mac * Super Fast Conversion Speed Play Almost Any Video File On Your Mac [...]
[...] 10-08-2010, 12:42 PM Sony HDR-XR550V 240GB High Definition HDD Handycam Camcorder Capture stunning 1920 x 1080 high-definition video and 12 Megapixel still images with the HDR-XR550V, which employs an "Exmor R" CMOS sensor for superior low-light performance and a 240GB internal hard disk drive. Optical SteadyShot image stabilization with Active Mode and 3-way Shake Canceling enables you to capture remarkably smooth video from wide angle to full telephoto shooting. HDR-XR550V record movies in AVCHD 1920 x 1080 format (highest quality). iOrgsoft provides HD cam users with excellent software Video Converter for Mac, it can convert AVCHD/MTS/M2TS footage from different types of cameras of Sony(including HDR-XR550V handycam), Canon, JVC, Panasonic, etc to MP4,MOV,DV,M4V that can be put into iMovie,FCE,FCP for further editing on Mac OS X. Video Converter for Mac features: * Convert Video for Apple Devices * Optimized Presets for Video Players * Convert Videos for Apple Software *Output Impressive HD quality. *Joining/merging/combining capability of AVCHD/MTS/M2TS files on mac * Super Fast Conversion Speed Play Almost Any Video File On Your Mac [...]
[...] Sony HDR-XR550V 240GB High Definition HDD Handycam Camcorder Sony HDR-XR550V 240GB High Definition HDD Handycam Camcorder Sony HDR-XR550V 240GB High Definition HDD Handycam Camcorder Capture stunning 1920 x 1080 high-definition video and 12 Megapixel still images with the HDR-XR550V, which employs an "Exmor R" CMOS sensor for superior low-light performance and a 240GB internal hard disk drive. Optical SteadyShot image stabilization with Active Mode and 3-way Shake Canceling enables you to capture remarkably smooth video from wide angle to full telephoto shooting. HDR-XR550V record movies in AVCHD 1920 x 1080 format (highest quality). iOrgsoft provides HD cam users with excellent software Video Converter for Mac, it can convert AVCHD/MTS/M2TS footage from different types of cameras of Sony(including HDR-XR550V handycam), Canon, JVC, Panasonic, etc to MP4,MOV,DV,M4V that can be put into iMovie,FCE,FCP for further editing on Mac OS X. Video Converter for Mac features: * Convert Video for Apple Devices * Optimized Presets for Video Players * Convert Videos for Apple Software *Output Impressive HD quality. *Joining/merging/combining capability of AVCHD/MTS/M2TS files on mac * Super Fast Conversion Speed Play Almost Any Video File On Your Mac [...]
[...] permalink Sony HDR-XR550V 240GB High Definition HDD Handycam Camcorder Capture stunning 1920 x 1080 high-definition video and 12 Megapixel still images with the HDR-XR550V, which employs an "Exmor R" CMOS sensor for superior low-light performance and a 240GB internal hard disk drive. Optical SteadyShot image stabilization with Active Mode and 3-way Shake Canceling enables you to capture remarkably smooth video from wide angle to full telephoto shooting. HDR-XR550V record movies in AVCHD 1920 x 1080 format (highest quality). iOrgsoft provides HD cam users with excellent software Video Converter for Mac, it can convert AVCHD/MTS/M2TS footage from different types of cameras of Sony(including HDR-XR550V handycam), Canon, JVC, Panasonic, etc to MP4,MOV,DV,M4V that can be put into iMovie,FCE,FCP for further editing on Mac OS X. Video Converter for Mac features: * Convert Video for Apple Devices * Optimized Presets for Video Players * Convert Videos for Apple Software *Output Impressive HD quality. *Joining/merging/combining capability of AVCHD/MTS/M2TS files on mac * Super Fast Conversion Speed Play Almost Any Video File On Your Mac [...]
Totally awesome….i am still amazed at the great info i come accross on the web….thanks.
shara you two great tools on mac:
dvd ripper for mac
mac video converter
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Impressive post. It’s total new to me. I learned a lot. Thanks.
Nice post. I am planing to buy an iMac. It’s useful. BTW, I would like to share a article of converting avi to ipad. It helps you play any avi videos on mac and windows.
iPad to Mac transfer can be your best considerable choice to transfer file from ipad to mac in an easy way.
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HEY! Thank you so much!
VLC had everything I needed 
THANKS!!! So long, iTunes and having to convert everything!