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thiagofll · Feb 10, 2006, 02:02 PM

Here's what's happening. I (most of the time) am able to play every type of .avi using this computer (iMac Core Duo). There's a specific .AVI video though, that my sister sent me, that it works with her Windows Machine, but it does not work on my Mac. There is sound but a white background (no picture). I have tried VLC, Mplayer, Quicktime Pro, Real Player, I even tried making a Video DVD out of Toast Titanium and nothing. I am getting tired of these incompatibilities of Mac's softwares, it really is starting to piss me off, it's Safari that does not load some websites, its the media player I paid $30 for, that is not compatible with this and that, the Intel transition, I have seriously had enough...Please help!

TETENAL · Feb 10, 2006, 02:43 PM

Open the window in QuickTime Player then open the Movie Info window to tell us what audio and video codecs this AVI uses. Since neither VLC nor MPlayer play it, I suspect there is no solution to your problem though.

thiagofll · Feb 10, 2006, 02:49 PM

Originally Posted by TETENAL

Open the window in QuickTime Player then open the Movie Info window to tell us what audio and video codecs this AVI uses. Since neither VLC nor MPlayer play it, I suspect there is no solution to your problem though.

Thanks for the reply...Here's what it says:

FORMAT: IV50, 320x240, Millions
16-bit Integer (Little Endian), Mono, 22.050 kHz
FPS:15.00
PLAYING FPS: (available while playing)
DATA SIZE:9.63 MB
DATA RATE:898.73 kbits/sec

TETENAL · Feb 10, 2006, 03:07 PM

That is Indeo Video 5. It's a closed sourced codec and it is no longer under development. There is no Mac OS X codec that plays it and there never will be. There was a codec for QuickTime in OS 9, but your Mac does not run Classic.

You need to convert this movie on an OS 9 or Windows machine to another format.

thiagofll · Feb 10, 2006, 03:38 PM

Originally Posted by TETENAL

That is Indeo Video 5. It's a closed sourced codec and it is no longer under development. There is no Mac OS X codec that plays it and there never will be. There was a codec for QuickTime in OS 9, but your Mac does not run Classic.

You need to convert this movie on an OS 9 or Windows machine to another format.

Thanks for the help...It's upsetting..It was a video of my nephew who I have not seen in over 6 months...so I basically need to find a machine running OS9 (classic) to convert right? There is no way I could convert using this one?

TETENAL · Feb 10, 2006, 09:12 PM

Originally Posted by thiagofll

It's upsetting..It was a video of my nephew who I have not seen in over 6 months...

The problem is that Indeo Video is a closed proprietary video codec and the company that owns it doesn't want to create a Mac OS X codec for it. There is nothing anyone else can do to resolve this issue.
On the other hand, if you can convert this video into an open standard like MPEG which is an ISO standard (MPEG, MPEG4, MPEG4/H.264) you can be reasonably sure, that you will be able to view this video on any platform for your lifetime.

Originally Posted by thiagofll

basically need to find a machine running OS9 (classic) to convert right? There is no way I could convert using this one?

Basically that is what you'd have to do. There is a thread in the general Mac OS X forum that talks about running Classic on an Intel Mac, but I don't know whether this works well enough to run QuickTime.

thiagofll · Feb 13, 2006, 05:26 AM

Originally Posted by TETENAL

The problem is that Indeo Video is a closed proprietary video codec and the company that owns it doesn't want to create a Mac OS X codec for it. There is nothing anyone else can do to resolve this issue.
On the other hand, if you can convert this video into an open standard like MPEG which is an ISO standard (MPEG, MPEG4, MPEG4/H.264) you can be reasonably sure, that you will be able to view this video on any platform for your lifetime.
Basically that is what you'd have to do. There is a thread in the general Mac OS X forum that talks about running Classic on an Intel Mac, but I don't know whether this works well enough to run QuickTime.

Thanks Tetenal...

philm · Feb 13, 2006, 06:59 AM

It might be easier to get your sister to re-export the movie at here end. When the movies was created originally, there would probably have been various options about encoding/compressing/size etc. It might be that she has the option not to use Indeo Video and to use a more generic standard.

How about sending it to someone who runs OS9 and who has the Indeo codec. They could then re-export it using another encoding.

analogika · Feb 13, 2006, 07:51 AM

Originally Posted by thiagofll

Safari that does not load some websites

Semi-off-topic, but I haven't seen one in *months* (possibly years) that won't work.

And a site that won't work in Safari is the site developer's problem.

Fire off an e-mail telling them that it simply cannot be a requirement to compromise security by using Internet Explorer and/or enabling ActiveX and automatic downloads just to use their website.

A client was telling me about a case yesterday where an employee of a large company he does IT administration for couldn't book a flight with bonus miles via a large airline's website, because that site insisted on Internet Exploder and tried to download an ActiveX (Windows-only) script in the background to do its work, which couldn't get through the company's firewall for obvious reasons.

She wrote a long email to the airline's management (I believe it was Lufthansa in fact) and actually received a reply three days later saying that they had considered and discussed her complaint and had to agree, and that they would be changing this in the near future.

thiagofll · Feb 13, 2006, 04:48 PM

Originally Posted by philm

It might be easier to get your sister to re-export the movie at here end. When the movies was created originally, there would probably have been various options about encoding/compressing/size etc. It might be that she has the option not to use Indeo Video and to use a more generic standard.

How about sending it to someone who runs OS9 and who has the Indeo codec. They could then re-export it using another encoding.

Yeah I thought of that, but teaching my sister on how to do that, it's like teaching the alphabet to a 5 months old baby...she'll never get it....

thiagofll · Feb 13, 2006, 04:51 PM

Originally Posted by analogika

Semi-off-topic, but I haven't seen one in *months* (possibly years) that won't work.

And a site that won't work in Safari is the site developer's problem.

Fire off an e-mail telling them that it simply cannot be a requirement to compromise security by using Internet Explorer and/or enabling ActiveX and automatic downloads just to use their website.

A client was telling me about a case yesterday where an employee of a large company he does IT administration for couldn't book a flight with bonus miles via a large airline's website, because that site insisted on Internet Exploder and tried to download an ActiveX (Windows-only) script in the background to do its work, which couldn't get through the company's firewall for obvious reasons.

She wrote a long email to the airline's management (I believe it was Lufthansa in fact) and actually received a reply three days later saying that they had considered and discussed her complaint and had to agree, and that they would be changing this in the near future.

I think that Safari, should work with different types of encryptions, because Microsoft does not offer explorer anymore and Explorer would crash every 5 minutes...it was bad...I love Safari but man, what a pain in the butt it is...

analogika · Feb 14, 2006, 05:40 AM

The example I wrote about has nothing to do with different types of encryptions.

It has to do with web designers wanting to download a program onto your computer without telling you and running it there.

Be thankful that this cannot be done with Safari, because that is exactly how spyware, adware, and keystroke loggers are installed under windows.

Anybody with even the slightest bit of understanding how to secure a Windows network will completely disable this sort of functionality anyway, and probably insist on users NOT using Internet Exploder, which is exactly what happened in that case (my example was a Windows machine in a corporate environment).

The site wouldn't work with Safari, either, but the point is, that it wouldn't work with any Windows browser either, if the Windows computer were properly set up and secured.

Yes, I agree:
Boneheaded web-designers who are unable to follow standards, let alone test for compatibility on several platforms, are a real pain in the butt and all need to be educated or fired.

Which is why YOU need to let the owner know. For every website that doesn't work properly, YOU need to write the company a friendly but firm e-mail, letting them know why they've lost your business.

That WILL change things in a good way.