Please help! Playing .avi files in QT Pro

Question

I have installed Perian, been to the Apple Store, and searched high and low for the answer, but cannot figure out how to play .avi files in QuickTime Pro. It's only some .avi files (not all), I can hear the background noise, but the screen is black. Please tell me how to remedy this.
Thank you,
Thom

Answer 1

'avi is simply a container that can contain any number of different video codecs. Most, but not all, can be played on a Mac.
These are the downloads and the settings you need in order to view/hear/play pretty much everything that the net can throw at you: The setup described below has proved repeatedly successful on both PPC and Intel macs, but nothing in life carries a guarantee!
It is known to work in the great majority of cases with Safari 3.2.1 and 4, QT 7.4.x, 7.5.x and 7.6 and OS 10.4.11 and 10.5.6.
Download and install (or re-install even if you already had them) the latest versions, suitable for your flavor of Mac, of:
RealPlayer 11.1 for Mac from:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/15540
Flip4Mac WMV Player from http://www.telestream.net/flip4mac-wmv/overview.htm (Windows Media Player for the Mac is no longer supported, even by Microsoft)
Perian from http://perian.org/
You should read this support page http://perian.org/#support in case you need to delete older codecs.
The latest version of Adobe FlashPlayer can be obtained from here:
http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1ProdVersion=ShockwaveFlash
(You can check here: http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/about/ to see which version you should install for your Mac and OS.
Note that Adobe requires you to uninstall any previous version of Flash Player, as mentioned here:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14157&sliceId=1
using the uninstaller from here (make sure you use the correct one!):
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14157
and also that you follow the instructions closely, such as closing ALL applications first before installing. You must also carry out a permission repair after installing anything from Adobe.
You should also ensure that you have downloaded and installed the correct version for your Mac of Security Update 2009-001. (N.B. Security Updates require both a restart and a permission repair.)
In Macintosh HD/Library/Quicktime/ delete any files relating to DivX (Perian already has them). However it should be noted that Perian is not an internet plugin and will not play DivX files imbedded on a website. For that you will need the DivX Player browser plugin available from http://www.divx.com/divx/mac/
Now go to Safari Preferences/Security, and tick the boxes under Web Content (all 4 of them) to enable Java.
Lastly open Audio Midi Setup (which you will find in the Utilities Folder of your Applications Folder) and click on Audio Devices. Make sure that both Audio Input and Audio Output, under Format, are set to 44100 Hz, and that you have selected 'Built in Audio'.
Important: Now repair permissions and restart.
You should also consider having the free VLC Player from http://www.videolan.org/ in your armory, as this plays almost anything that DVD Player might not.
There is an additional 'fix' you could try if you are having problems with Flash and Quicktime, depending on which type of Mac you have:
On Intel Macs, make sure that you are not running Safari in Rosetta. You can check this, and change it, in the Get Info window.
On PPC Macs, go to the Hard Disk/Library/Internet Plug-Ins folder, and drag the file 'QuickTime Plugin.webplugin' to the desktop. Quit and restart Safari. If things have improved you can trash that file. If they haven't put it back, as the lack of this plug-in can cause QT content in some widgets to cease functioning.
And there is an additional kid on the block: SilverLight. Microsoft has created their own version of what a replacement for Flash could be. You can read more about it here:
http://silverlight.net/
So, if you go to any sites that have been designed for this new Silverlight stuff, you can download the plug-in from here (but make certain that you are downloading SilverLight v.1.0 for OS X (10.4.8 upwards) if you are using a PPC Mac. Version 2 only works with Intel Macs:
http://silverlight.net/GetStarted/
Recommendation: Close all applications before installing any of the above, repair permissions, reboot, and repair permissions again.