Written by AVI is a multimedia container format which contains both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback. People can get AVI files played on Windows platform with various media player apps such as Windows Media Player, VLC Media Player, Divx Player, etc. However, for Mac users, you may find that you have no luck to get AVI files played with QuickTime Player on Mac. The following article will illustrate why QuickTime Player not play AVI files and also share you 3 solutions to fix QuickTime Player AVI playing issues.
Why fail to play AVI files with QuickTime Player on Mac?
From QuickTime Player supported file formats, we can see that QuickTime only included native playback support for Motion JPEG AVI files. It also means that if you try to play AVI files encoded with other incompatible codec such as Divx, Xvid, DV, H.264, etc, QuickTime player will fail to open them.
3 Solution to fix QuickTime AVI file playback issue on Mac
Solution 1: Free AVI players alternative to QuickTime Player
1. VLC Player for Mac
VLC is as powerful when referring to AVI file playback. With amazing adaptability to different operating systems like Windows, Mac OS, Linux, iOS, etc, this AVI player has gained millions of users and owned a strong fan base. However, this AVI player does not support all AVI files unless you download VLC codec pack with Xvid, DivX, MJPEG, etc codecs to help it play any AVI video movie smoothly.
2. MPlayer for Mac
Besides VLC, MPlayer for Mac is also another good choice. As one of the most popular video players, MPlayer ensure smooth playback of MPEG, VOB, AVI, ASF, WMA, WMV, VIVO, QT, MOV, MP4, OGG, OGM, RealMedia, Matroska, NUT, NuppelVideo, etc. You can play AVI videos on your macOS High Sierra or macOS Sierra without any trouble.
Tips: You may fail to open certain AVI files with above listed 2 free AVI players for Mac due to the missing codec.
Solution 2：Install Perian for QuickTime player
Perian is a free, open source, QuickTime component that supports many popular media types. You’ll find that your QuickTime player now can perfectly handle various media types listed below:
– AVI, FLV, and MKV file formats
– 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
– AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3
However, installing Perian with QuickTime player won’t be a reliable choice due to the limitation of Perian listed below:
– Perian isn’t being developed anymore. For those who use QuickTime 10 or newer Perian is no longer useful.
– If you care much about quality, Perian would not be a good choice since it provides somewhat sub-par quality when compared with the method of directly getting the codes from the source.
– You can only use Perian with QuickTime to play video on Mac, but not on your iPad, iPhone, Apple TV.
Solution 3: Convert unsupported AVI for QuickTime player
If you are looking for a reliable solution to get any AVI files played with QuickTime player on Mac, we highly recommend to you to download a Mac AVI to QuickTime player converter. Although there are many programs on the market can do the job for you, however, we highly recommend Pavtube Video Converter for Mac to you. The program has full support for all 4K/2K/HD/SD AVI files encoded with various different compression codec, you can easily convert unsupported AVI files to QuickTime player native compatible QuickTime MOV files with fast conversion speed and perfect output file quality.
Related article: Play QuickTime MOV on TV | 4K Video to QuickTime Player | Play H.265 on QuickTime Player
Pavtube Video Converter for Mac is available on macOS High Sierra, macOS Sierra, Mac OS X El Capitan, Mac OS X Yosemite, etc. The program supports batch conversion mode, so that you can load multiple AVI files into the program for conversion at one time. What’s more, the program supports to produce high quality results, you can’t find any difference between the results video and the original source video.
Step by Step to Convert AVI for QuickTime Player Viewing on Mac
Step 1: Input avi files to the software.
Click “Add Video” or “Add from folder” icon to import source avi files to the program.
Step 2: Define output file format.
Click “Format” bar, from its extended list, here, you can choose QuickTime player best compatible “Common Video” > “MOV – QuickTime(*.mov)” to output. You can also opt to select other QuickTime player compatible file formats basing on your own needs.
Tips: Click “Settings” on the main interface to open “Profile Settings” window, here, you can flexibly choose or specify exactly the profile parameters including video codec, resolution, bit rate, frame rate, audio codec, bit rate, sample rate, channels, etc as you like to get better output video and audio quality.
Step 3: Begin the conversion process.
Go back to the main interface, press the right-bottom to start to convert AVI to QuickTime player best compatible MOV format conversion process.
When the conversion is done, you will have no limitation to enjoy AVI files with QuickTime Player.
