
Outdated player - There's a possibility that outdated Quicktime player is incompatible with not only AVI videos, but other video formats as well.Damaged files - If the AVI file is damaged, then you have to fix it before playing it.Incompatible codecs - As aforementioned, AVI is a container format with various codecs, but only specific codecs are supported by Mac models.There are three main reasons for AVI can't be played on Mac by Quicktime Player: Due to these differences, converting AVI to MP4 on Mac is a more ideal pick. In addition, AVI is not as popular as MP4. The most common is H.264.Ĭompared to MP4, AVI files are uncompressed files of massive sizes, which are inconvenient to spread. It has video codecs of H.264, H.265/HEVC, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, Real Video, Theora, WMV/VC-1, VP8, VP9, and MVC. MP4(MPEG-4 Part 14) is a more widely used media container that saves multiple audio, video, metadata, subtitles, and other meta types on multiple platforms with good quality. Besides, it has codecs of WMA, FLAC, MP3, AMR, AAC, and a few others. It stores video and audio data files in codecs DivX and XviD for multiple streaming. The development of the format is sponsored by Microsoft.

Then how can you convert AVI to MP4 files on Mac? First, let's dig deeper into these two files.ĪVI(audio and video interleave) is a proprietary multimedia container format that saves media information digitally. Therefore, you might need to convert the AVI file type to a more popular format like MP4 with H.264 codec, which could make it easier to share with others, save it to Mac or a mobile device, or make it compatible with your media player. For Mac users, it's one of the most annoying things. When you try to open AVI files with QuickTime, an error message may restrain you from opening these files. Among these formats, AVI files can be opened on Mac with Apple-supported codecs. According to Apple, Quicktime supports multiple video formats including MP4, MOV, AVI, M4A, AVCHD, etc. QuickTime media player is the default player developed by Apple, and is vital for Mac users to play locally hosted media files. If you would rather not install any software to convert your files, you can use a web service Zamzar instead.Ĭonvert AVI to MP4 on Mac has different ways according to your situation and preference.


