AVI is a Microsoft format that Mac OS X doesn’t read, so how do you make it work:
Watching AVI Movies in Mac OS X – Mac Guides
VLC Player is a cross platform application with a mac version available for download from the VLC website. [I've found that mplayer is there, but seems to hang and doesn't work well at least on Leopard, 10.5.5]
Watching AVI Movies in Mac OS X – Mac Guides
QuickTime Plug-InsSeveral third party plug-ins are available to allow users to watch .avi files using Apple’s native multimedia media program. These are installed into the QuickTime plug-ins folder and usually require little or no setting up.
* Perian. Currently the best and most all-encompassing Quicktime plugin that will guarentee to play almost any codec within an AVI file.Includes support for MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivX, H.264, FLV1, FSV1, VP6, H263I, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), MPEG Layer II Audio, AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3, (i.e loads of Codecs)
- Flip4Mac. A free solution, offering playback of AVI, ASF, ASX and most importantly non-DRM protected WMA and WMV files. Microsoft site
Tags: Codec Avi, Fraps, Free Solution, H 264, Mac OS X, Mac Version, Microsoft Format, Microsoft Site, Mpeg Layer, Multimedia Media, Platform Application, Plug Ins, Vbr Mp3, Vlc Player, Wmv Files
You should try Video Converter Mac that support almost all format video conversion for Mac os X Snow Leopard. You can convert AVI to almost all portable devices video format.
source: http://videoconvertermac.blogspot.com
I’d like to recommend this video converter for mac, you can use it to convert avi to mov video on mac, then you can play the video with quicktime player.
http://macvideoconverter.mac-dvd.com
People can also covert avi to mp4 on mac.
http://www.moviesmac.com/tutorial/avi-converter-mac.html#121