OS X Lion wont play AVI WMV files

By Campbell on July 23, 2011 in Technologies

What a pain…..

“Upgraded” to OS X Lion and now my AVI movie files wont play. Had a search online and most results were just recommending to install a converter and convert all the movie formats into something that was Quicktime playable – MOV format.

Instead this is what I think I did to make it work – I say think because I was rushing, but it ended up working.

If anyone sees this and does similar can you let me know so I can edit this post? Cheers in advance!

Timeline…..like I said, as far as I can remember…..

went to view AVI movie in Finder window – no joy, no preview
went to open AVI (my default is Quicktime, I like being able to preview with the space bar….) and got an error message – Quicktime couldnt play it.
searched online, suggestion was to uninstall DiVX – did that using Appzapper, tried opening movie – Quicktime opened it, but had sound only.
searched online, suggestion was to uninstall Flip4Mac- did that using Appzapper, tried opening movie – Quicktime opened it, but had sound only.
searched online, suggestion was to uninstall Perian then reinstall it – did that, tried opening movie – Quicktime opened it, but had sound only.
restarted the laptop during this whole process more than once…
decided to check in Library>Quicktime to see what was there – spotted two DiVX things, deleted them – now AVI movies preview in Finder and play in Quicktime.

If anyone having the same trouble can confirm or refine the explanation, please comment and Ill edit this post.

EDIT: I also had 3ivx installed (well I saw it in System Preferences didnt really know it was there, removed that too)

About Campbell

Campbell Smythe is a learning technologies specialist with MAF based in Cairns Australia. His background is in education, has taught in primary and secondary schools and been an advisor to teachers and schools in the use of technologies to enhance learning.

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Apple, avi, lion, os x, os x 10.7, osx, technology, upgrade

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12 Responses to OS X Lion wont play AVI WMV files

Doug Moe July 31, 2011 at 1:28 pm #

I’m having same problem, deleted the DivX files, but it hasn’t helped.
cdsmythe July 31, 2011 at 8:25 pm #

hey I also had 3iVX installed and removed that too.
AK August 1, 2011 at 12:24 am #

I followed your suggestions;

Uninstalled DivX & 3ivX, left Flip4Mac alone, and (without restarting) the preview works in Finder, so I guess DivX must be the offender?
Janet August 4, 2011 at 12:55 pm #

Turn to Google search:
how+to+play+avi+lion
cdsmythe August 4, 2011 at 1:25 pm #

Yeah that search usually comes up with the instructions on how to convert an AVI file to MOV – fine for one or two but if youve got 2TB of avi files in your media library – good luck.
David G August 9, 2011 at 11:14 am #

Thank you for posting this. For what it’s worth, I had the same problem.

Went to Library > Quicktime: removed 3ivx and divx files, no reboot, just reopened the wmv file and it worked.
cdsmythe August 9, 2011 at 12:43 pm #

Nice to hear it helped, thanks for saying thanks!
KH August 9, 2011 at 3:45 pm #

I have done all this and still not working for me. I get an error: The document could not be opened. “The file may be damaged or may not be a movie file that is compatible with Quicktime Player.” I can open the file just fine with Quicktime 7 Player.
Rod October 18, 2011 at 8:02 am #

I tried the above suggestions and at first it didn’t work but then I noticed and xvid file in Library/Quicktime. I deleted that and it worked like a charm.
Dan Lundmark January 17, 2012 at 5:17 pm #

I recommend Perian ( http://www.perian.org/#detail ) to add native OSX support for video codecs in both AVI and Quicktime containers as well as many other video formats.
Campbell January 17, 2012 at 5:29 pm #

Good tip Dan, thanks mate.