# How can I view avi's on a mac?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-view-avis-on-a-mac/252140>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 25, 2004, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-view-avis-on-a-mac/252140 "2004-06-25T03:44:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![remisser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@remisser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/remisser)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-view-avis-on-a-mac/252140/1 "2004-06-25T03:44:05Z")

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I have a friend who has a macintosh. Now, I have a ton of avi files of funny videos, blooper videos, newsreels, etc etc. – He’s downloaded them all from me, now my question is: What’s the next step? I mean, with a PC, you have to download proper codecs sometime or do this that or the other thing. How can a mac view the same files? Also, how can one burn those avi’s to dvd with a dvdrom burner on a mac?

(Bonus question, how do you unpack a .tar file on a mac? ;))

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**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-view-avis-on-a-mac/252140/2 "2004-06-25T04:03:12Z")

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Last question first: to unpack a tar file, you can use the gui method, drag 'n drop the tar file on top of Stuffit Expander; or you can use the command line method. I think the syntax is “tar extract \<filepath\>”.

Now, onward to avi files: QuickTime Player can deal with most of them _if_ you have the codec. DivX, for example, is available but you need to ferret it out and install the codec. Some codecs (mostly old ones) are not available for OS X, such as, if I recall correctly, Indeo 4.

As an alternative to QuickTime Player, you can snag a copy of VLC which can sometimes play things that QuickTime Player does not.

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**Author:** ![groo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecd19e/32.png) [@groo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groo)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-view-avis-on-a-mac/252140/3 "2004-06-25T05:32:22Z")

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[Here is where you find VLC](http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/0.7.2/macosx/vlc-0.7.2.dmg)