

It’s called VLC and I encourage you to grab a copy for yourself at.
Xvid codec player mac mac os x#
Worse, the audio can be separately encoded using one of a ton of audio codecs too, so you can also end up with a file where you can see the video but can’t hear anything because the video player just can’t figure that part out.įortunately, whether you’re on a Mac OS X system or a Windows system, there’s an open source third-party video player that includes a ton of codecs and typically can play files that Quicktime Player can’t handle. There are some standard codecs that programs like iMovie and iDVD use to encapsulate video content, but sometimes you’ll find that a filmmaker – or someone encoding or “ripping” video material – uses a non-standard codec because it’ll do a better job of compressing, leave less artifacting (boxy visual noise you’ll see in scenes with lots of action and movement) or offer some security features that aren’t normally part of a video file. mov) but is completely random garbage, for all intents and purposes.

Problem is, if the video is encoded using a codec that you don’t have, video players can be completely baffled and basically see a file that has a name that makes sense (like. A codec is a protocol whereby the media is encoded and (often) compressed, and there are a ton of them.

Welcome to the complex and confusing world of video and audio codecs.
