MBs are just plain crap for video

Hello People,

OK so my MacBook Black 2GB RAM is pretty awesome at pretty much everything bar one thing...playing mkv's, ogm's or even DivX avi's.

I installed the divx codec, followed advice on getting it all to run in QuickTime, even installed perian and VLC, even tried VMware Fusion and ran vista just to see if the *OH DEAR MY ANKLES ARE SWELLING* thing could play it...and at the end of it seems mac are just plain crap at playing any of my files...even the perfect rips I watch without even thinking on my vista PC and laptop just DONT play on the mac. It'll play for like 30 seconds before corrupting and the app crashing on me.

Now I can understand some utils not being available for macs but mac are meant to be great at video stuff right? I thought it was just my MB but my work college on his MBP (2 days old) has the same problem. Everywhere we both looked everyone says the same thing...vlc or install this and that...is there no codec pack to rule them all? In vista all I need is k-lite and ccc and after that if it does not play u know for sure its not ur codec or lack of its the file.

U'd think after all this time with the whole torrent/p2p someone somewhere would have sorted this out properly...guess nobody with mac's watches anything downloaded of the net...ah...the best bit...I can even pay for software to allow me to watch my avi files...

OK...so I am not going back to vista for my work laptop...never...but someone somewhere must know how to sort this all out right? I mean its not like I am the only person in the world?

Oh well....live and learn I guess...oh and before anythings of it...I still choose my mb over any laptop...its black...feels good and so far its been totally rock solid for my work...I would of at least crashed a few times in the ms world by now:-|

End of rant...so pretty please with a cherry on top...help me...

Well, I use DivX on my Macbook, and it plays DivX videos perfectly, in the DivX video player.

Now xVid is different, that is awful, but DivX is fine. I can even play them in QT.

There's a bit of a difference between "the platform of choice for Hollywood editors" and "the platform of choice for people swapping videos for free on the internet."

In the latter case, yes, Macs have a lot of catching up to do.

What the. I've had almost no problems with playing video on my mac (all the formats you mentioned, and a lot of MKV).

All I have is Perian installed. If it's MKV's load time that is in question, you open it in Quicktime, wait for it to load, then after loading hit File > Save > Save as reference movie. From thereon, whenever you open the 4-5MB reference movie, your movie will be loaded without wait time.

Something seems to have messed things up on your MB. Either do a reinstall or some kind of repairing of permissions and such.

I repeat. I have had NO problems with video on the Mac...

technologist said:

There's a bit of a difference between "the platform of choice for Hollywood editors" and "the platform of choice for people swapping videos for free on the internet."

Click to expand...

Good point. I was just going to post something along those lines.

Um, yeah I have no idea what the original poster is talking about. My Macbook routinely plays videos downloaded off the net (disclaimer - public domain self-help educational videos...stuff from the UK; Top G- er I forget the title) whether they be .avi, .mov, .mpg, .flv, whatever they may be. DVDs, iPod videos, you name it. Granted I don't use Quicktime much; I usually use QTAmateur to view them with the DIVX codec and Flip4Mac installed for those danged Windows Media files and others. It plays full-screen without the Pro tax.

There's the odd file that can only be played with VLC, and even then it's a bit dodgy but once it works it plays just fine. I think something else is wrong with your set-up software wise.

FYI Quicktime sans Pro plays in full screen... as does Quicklook.

I'm with goob and walker, I have had zero problems playing back videos on my Macbook. All I needed was Perian and Flip4Mac and I was good to go. Most of the time I use Quicktime, but there's VLC for those rare moments where Quicktime won't play a file.

Like goob said, you might need to repair permissions or probably do a reinstall because what you're experiencing is not normal.

All if fixed with the MB...did the permissions thing and still no game...then uninstalled everything including perian, codec, etc and then repair perms then installed, repaired again and its fixed...awesome...thank u very much for all ur help people...ah...need to get another mb now...one for work and one for my little bro...his PC just died