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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Gordon Werner said 3:10PM on 1-04-2007
can someone explain why VLC can play back stuff that QuickTime cannot?
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Samuel McConnell said 3:13PM on 1-04-2007
I prefer MPlayer OSX.
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Leonard Nimrod said 2:58PM on 1-04-2007
QT is still my choice for playing my numerous AVIs. As long as you have the free codecs to go with it. Plus it makes editing video and audio so damn easy.
Maybe I'll jump back to VLC when they dump that ugly orange cone icon and dramatically improve the GUI.
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Stan said 7:41PM on 1-05-2007
Quicktime plays everything when you add the free Perian codec. I use quicktime along with this codec to play all the avi's, divx, and xvid files out there.
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Mike Rose said 3:28PM on 1-04-2007
QuickTime won't play DVDs, but VLC will.
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Leonard Nimrod said 4:21PM on 1-04-2007
@Gordon Werner
It has to do with codecs, which is short for 'co'mpression/'dec'ompression. Simply, if the program knows how a file was compressed, it can uncompress it. VLC, MPlayer, and Nero are popular players that are able to decode most media.
Some media that isn't easily decoded is real Media (file extention .RM). the file extension doesn't necessarily delegate the coded required. For instance, Windows Media Player and Quicktime can play very AVI files. Why not all? Because the .AVI file extension can refer to DivX, XviD and 3ivX. They are all MPEG-4 codecs and are listed from worst to best, but note that all of them being very good codecs, especially when you compare to the one's MS has put out. They are similar to each other but at the same time are too different to be understand by all programs unless the proper codec is included.
Quicktime can play all the latest AVI, WMA, and WMV with a few free plugins. I have listed them below.
- DivX :: http://www.divx.com/divx/mac/codec/
- XviD :: http://n.ethz.ch/student/naegelic/download/
- 3ivX :: http://www.3ivx.com/download/macos.html
- WMA/WMV :: I can only list 3 URLS. Just Google for Flip4Mac.
Just drop them in the codec folder and your done!
@Mike Rose
QT will play MPEG-2 but not Video_TS files. Apple doesn't need this as it also includes a very nice DVD program. I think prefer it to VLC or MPlayer, but I do see a benefit when switches regions often. I hope they cut that out sometime in my lifetime.
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Billy K said 4:27PM on 1-04-2007
@Leonard,
Check out these replacement icons. They work and look great. No hassle whatsoever.
http://www.macthemes.net/articles/gossip/000350.php
Only trouble is you have to reinstall them after every upgrade. Totally worth it, IMO. I was so sick of that orange cone in my dock.
Also, the GUI is much better in .8.6. You can even kill the annoying control block, as tiny (functional but non-imposing) controls are embedded in the bottom of the window. Give it a try!
@Samuel,
I gave MPlayer OSX a serious try, but in the end I prefered to get through a whole video with a crash. I also hated the sizing options and the lame queue. Have any of these things been addressed? I haven't bothered to check it out, as between VLC getting very good and adding codecs to Quicktime, my video playback needs are fulfilled. Still always curious, though...
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Eli said 8:31PM on 1-04-2007
@Leonard
Perian ( http://perian.org/ ) is your friend :)
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Leonard Nimrod said 12:31AM on 1-05-2007
@Eli
I heard about that, but haven't checked it out since my other codecs already have all my bases covered. I'm sure to give it a try the next time I setup a Mac.
Reply