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How to Play AVI with QuickTime on Mac (Mountain Lion)

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:

Download Mac Version

play avi in quicktime

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.

play avi files with quicktime

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.

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

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.

play avi files on Mac

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.

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