Learn how to play AVI video files on Mac OS X through this guide. This tutorial guides you on how to play AVI files on Mac media supported media players. Continue reading..!
Download Free WMV AVI Converter for macOS 10.7 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. This Free WMV AVI Converter helps you convert WMV and AVI video to any popular video file and then to play on your iPhone X/8/SE/7/6/6 plus/5s/5s/5/4s, or iPad Air 2/mini 3/mini 2/4, or iPod touch/nano. Tips: This AVI converter for Mac supports batch conversion, you can import multiple AVI files on Mac, hold down the 'Command' or 'Shift' key and click on the AVI files one by one. You can also use your mouse to click and drag to select multiple files. Choose an output format. The next step is to choose an output format for AVI files. Free AVI Player for Mac is another popular alternative to play AVI files on Mac. It shares many similar features to Elmedia Player like the ability to play HD quality videos, support for a long list of file formats, and high-quality audio output.
How to Play AVI File on Mac?
- Go to Finder and select the AVI file
- Drag it onto the QuickTime Player icon
Player For Avi Files On Mac
Else,
- Open Mac dock
- Launch QuickTime Player
- Go to menu
- Click on New Finder Window
- Browse the location of AVI file
- Double-click on the AVI video
This is what a typical Mac user do, to play a AVI file on Mac. But, we can’t ensure that this method always works in playing AVI files on Mac. Since QuickTime only plays native AVI files with MJPEG video.
So, when you want to play a AVI file on Mac and QuickTime fails to play the AVI video, then you can employ below techniques.
1. VLC Player: VLC is an effective AVI player for Mac. It the easiest and free-way of playing AVI file on Mac. So, you must give it a try.
- Download VLC player on your Mac
- Install it using its .dmg file
- Select the AVI file, which you want to play
- Right-click on it and opt Info
- Choose Open with and select VLC from list
2. Old QuickTime Edition: If you have the latest version of QuickTime and it fails to play any AVI file present on your Mac then go for an older version of QuickTime and try to play your videos. (QuickTime 7 plays AVI videos without any additional plug-ins or codecs)
3. Convert AVI to QuickTime video: Convert your AVI files into QuickTime videos and then play them. To convert AVI into QuickTime compatible file format,
- Launch QuickTime player
- Use export to QuickTime option in the file menu
- Browse and select the AVI file
- Ensure that destination file format is MOV
- Finish the process
You can also make use of an efficient video converter tool to convert the AVI file.
4. Use Perian Plugin: Perian is an open-source QuickTime element, which allows you to play different video formats that you are unable to play on your Mac. If you are using QuickTime as your prime player, then you can download Perian because it offers necessary codecs that help you to play AVI files on Mac.
5. Third Party AVI Players: If none of the above methods help you to play AVI files on Mac then use third party media players, which are available online.
If your AVI file fails to play even in third party AVI players, then it seems the file is corrupted. So, first your repair AVI file on Mac and then try to play it using any of the above methods.
Method 1: Using QuickTime Plugin Perian
Mac Quicktime MKV plugin - Perian has a solution to the problem MKV files not playing on Macbook, iMac or Mac mini. With Perian, you can play MKV video movie in HD, SD on any Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later, El Capitan, Yosemite, needless of MKV player for Mac. And below are the detailed steps to play MKV on your Mac using QuickTime:
- 1. Double-click the MKV file in the Finder.
- 2. Click on the File option and Open it
- 3. Select the MKV file and click Open.
- 4. If a file is an older media format, QuickTime Player may convert it before playing.
The formats that can be played on Mac: QuickTime Movie (.mov), MPEG-4 (.mp4, .m4v), MPEG-2 (OSX 10.0-10.6 are exclusive), MPEG-1, 3GPP, 3GPP2, AVCHD (OSX 10.0-10.7 are exclusive), AVI ((Motion JPEG only), DV.
Method 2: Using VLC Media Player
VLC Media Player is is a free cross-platform multimedia player that can play most multimedia files, DVDs, etc. It can be downloaded to Windows PC or Mac computer. Here's how you can play MKV on Mac using VLC Media Player
Play Avi Files On Macbook
- 1. Go to official App Store on your computer.
- 2. Download and install VLC Media Player.
- 3. Find the MKV file you want to play.
- 4. Load it to VLC Media Player to play it.
Method 3: Using MacX Video Converter
MacX Video Converter Pro helps to convert MKV to MP4, M4V, MOV, AVI, and other video formats that are supported by QuickTime and VLC, or other media players. With the MKV video converter, you can play MKV on Mac freely, solve VLC, Quicktime MKV playing issues, and even add MKV to iTunes, Final Cut Pro, iMovie etc. You don't need to sacrifice any video audio quality during the conversion process thanks to the advanced High Quality Engine. Meanwhile, the Level-3 Hardware Acceleration and Auto Copy technologies deliver a super-fast MKV video converting speed.
The MKV video converting software also enables you to download MKV video free from Dailymotion, Vevo, 300＋ sites, which means you can watch MKV on Mac with no formats limits or internet connection limits.
How to Convert MKV Video Movie File for Playback on Mac:
- 1. Free download the MKV video converter on Mac and run it on your computer.
- 2. Click 'Add File' icon to navigate the local folder and find the MKV video or movie.
- 3. Select output format from the pop up window, like MP4, AVI, MOV as your needs.
- 4. Click 'RUN' button to start MKV video file conversion process. After the task is finished, you can play converted MKV on Mac with original video quality, or add the MKV video to iTunes movie library with no format limits.
If you wanna convert MKV to MP4:
Just select 'MP4' as output file format. To play MKV on Mac with QuickTime, import MKV to iMovie, convert MKV to AVI, M4V, MOV, 3GP, other supported formats.
If you have problem playing MKV because of its big size:
You can also compress the MKV video using featurs like crop, trim and parameter adjustment. To trim and crop unnecessary parts, click the Edit button. To adjust the resolutions, bit rates, codecs, other settings to shrink MKV videos, click the gear buttton beside the video icon. Then click 'Browse' button to select a destination folder to save output converted MKV file.
* Level-3 Hardware Acceleration - apply GPU acceleration of Intel, Nvidia and AMD to decode and encode MKV H.265/H.264. This feature speed up MKV HEVC conversion to solve MKV HEVC files not playing on Mac error.
* Auto Copy: when you select converting MKV to MOV/MP4 for QuickTime, this feature will move the video/audio files from MKV container to another container without re-encoding. This tech not only ensures a super-fast processing speed but also keeps 1:1 original quality of HD MKV files.
Method 4: Using MKV Player for Mac
Watch Avi Files On Mac Desktop
What plays MKV files on Mac computer perfectly? Not QuickTime, not VLC, what I'm going to recommend here is a newbie, 5KPlayer, a fantastic MKV video player for Mac that I came across accidentally on forum.
It plays MKV video in 720p, 1080p, or 4K UHD on macOS Sierra, Mac El Capitan, Yosemite, OS X 10 without freezing or buffering. It takes no time to fully load MKV file. The player for MKV also plays AVI, FLV, MOV, MTS, MP4, MP3 music, AAC, to name just a few.
How To Watch Avi Files On Macbook
Another feature that impresses me is that it is able to airplay MKV video movie from Mac to Mac, from Mac to Apple TV. This means that you can watch MKV on Mac even on airplay supported TV with no limits.
How to Fix: VLC Won't Play MKV File on macOS
Will VLC play MKV files on Mac? Yes, but not smoothly, common issues are MKV files audio not working on VLC, some MKV files not loading, open successfully, Skipping, Chopping, VLC does not support the audio or video format, etc. If you still prefer to using VLC media player, the following tips of VLC player not playing MKV may help you out, if it still fails to work, try other players.
Watch Avi Files On Mac Windows 10
Set all preferences before back to default, close the player, execute the reset and re-open VLC player. If that doesn't help, the most straightforward solution to let VLC play MKV files on Mac smoothly is simple, convert MKV in 720P, or HD files to VLC formats with MKV video converter. VLC player reads several formats on Mac OS X, including MP4, QuickTime format, 3GP, VOB, TS, AVI, FLV, ASF, Ogg, WAV, , MPS, etc.
Bonus Tip
Cannot Play Avi Files On Mac
* Apple official applications on Mac such as QuickTime Player works with many kinds of audio and video formats, like AVI, FLV, DivX, and many more.
* Perian is not perfect, though. It only works with QT 10 or lower for it stops being updated. You may still have some problems when playing MKV on Mac. Some users are crying that they downloaded Perian, and MKV are played on QT but with no sound. And it has to read the MKV file before playing, you can not fast forward file that has not been fully loaded.
* It's better to use MKV video converter to convert the file first and watch MKV on Mac freely, or jump to method 3, resort to a MKV player for Mac.
* Big Sur (macOS 10.15) is killing off 32-bit apps. Many legacy versions of Mac apps like GarageBand, and Perian are unsupported. So to play MKV with success on your new mac operating system, make sure it is new and upgrade for the 64-bit computer.