.AVI movie conversion for Quicktime -- simples!
Euan Williams Background info:
'Quicktime can play .AVI (Audio Video Interleave) files. According to Apple, the .AVI format is known as a "container format." It specifies a way in which a file may contain audio and video data, but does not specify how that data is encoded.'
'The encoding of audio and video data is specified in what are known as codecs. A codec (short for COmpressor/DECompressor) tells the computer how to decode the audio and video tracks that have been encoded within the .AVI file.'
'When QuickTime opens an .AVI file, it checks to see which codecs were used to encode the audio and video tracks within it. For example, an .AVI file may contain a video track encoded in the Cinepak codec and an audio track encoded with the ALaw 2:1 codec. If both the audio and the video were compressed using a codec that QuickTime can use, the file will play normally. If the audio or video or both were created using codecs that QuickTime cannot use, you may see the "Quicktime parts are missing" message.'
[Smalldog Kibbles & Bytes #523 -- 6th July 2007].
The really neat and fuss-free solution is Prism, free for non-commercial use.
> http://www.nchsoftware.com/prism/index.html?gclid=CNOktau09aACFc8r3godxlCtwQ <
Download using the > Prism MOV/AVI Converter for Mac OS X < link.
Open Prism. Drag your .AVI file to the window. Set the destination. Set the output file format to .MOV (Quicktime's preferred format).
Choose play or convert. Prism does thrilling things with codecs and, after a short while, there is your movie in Quicktime.
(OSX 10.6.3, Intel Mac)