(updated 06-Mar-24)
From time to time I run into web pages with embedded or downloadable videos that are in Windows AVI format. Microsoft’s Windows Media Player for the Mac has always seemed to me to be, shall we say, problematic (i.e. crash-prone and incompatible) and it appears Microsoft might agree because they’ve announced that they are discontinuing support for it and instead recommend using a Quicktime plug-in called Flip4Mac that works better and allows playback in Quicktime Player and as embedded web page videos in Safari. Download the installer here:
it is free for playback support, you have to pay $30 for the Pro version if you want to be able to create your own AVIs but that’s not needed for typical use. If you’ve got an Intel based Mac you’ll have to wait a while longer because the current version is PowerPC only, but an Intel Mac version is in development.
While I’m at it, there is another common non-Quicktime format called DivX that you might bump into as well. If you download an AVI movie and it still does not play correctly even though you have Flip4Mac installed, you might need this plug-in too:
Again, there is an extra $20 charge for full function but don’t pay if you only need playback support. Click the Free Trial link to download it or visit http://www.divx.com/divx/mac/download/. This version is for PowerPC Macs only but preliminary support for Intel Macs is available in the form or a pre-release beta test version available at http://labs.divx.com/LatestMacCodec.
Between these two plug-ins you should be able to play just about any video format you find while browsing the Net, with the possible exception of the very latest Flash format (I’ll try to update this page when an update is available to support that.)
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I have used flip4mac because it’s the only way I can transfer windows movies for the video iPod. It loads into Quick Time like a plug-in and works seamlessly. All .wmv videos become .mov and work just great.