AVI burned on a Mac, not playing on PC

Duck Soup

I've seen many threads that start with 'I burned an AVI file from my PC and it won't play on a Mac'. Usually the threads come to a grinding halt as soon as someone says 'download Perian'. Problem sorted. I never thought I'd have the problem in the other direction.

I have an AVI file (originally from a PC), which I then burned on a blank CD (standard issue, 50 on a spindle type of thing) on a MBP running 10.5.6. The file wasn't tweaked or edited at all. I played it once on the Mac to see if it was working. So far, no problems.

Then I drag and drop and use the system's 'burn' facility. I finish burning, once again plays fine on the Mac from the CD. And then something weird happens. It won't play on a PC. WMP gives sound but no pic, QT7 for the PC gives a white screen and no sound or audio.

It's been the proud boast for a while now that CDs burned on a Mac are no longer 'Mac CDs' that are unreadable by PCs. And indeed, the CD itself will open, but the AVI file won't play.

I don't get it. If it was initially a PC file (from a mate, I don't possess a PC) and it wasn't interfered with by the Mac, merely burnt from one, shouldn't it play on a PC as it's still the same file?

I've tried changing it from AVI to .mov, but even with that QT7 on the PC won't recognize it. Weird.

Melted M&M

have you the correct codecs and try vlc and if you ahve a memory card try copying it onto that and transferring to other computer via memory card

Duck Soup

Melted M&M wrote: »

have you the correct codecs and try vlc and if you ahve a memory card try copying it onto that and transferring to other computer via memory card

The memory card work-around is a good idea (they can burn it the other end, if you see what I mean), but I'm still wondering if there's a way to sort the initial problem out for the long term - for example if I wanted to mail a CD to someone with the file on.

Codecs? Ehh.....speak slowly because you're talking to an idiot here. I understand the concept of the necessary codecs, I just don't know (a) where to look on the Mac to see the ones it has and (b) what ones would be necessary for a PC to get its head around the file. Oh and (c) how to add them. I'm also still wondering why a PC file should pass thru the Mac unmolested and not be playable on a PC afterwards. Perhaps it's the way Leopard burns the CD. I've tried exporting in different formats instead of saving as a .mov but no joy.

But thank you for the help and it'll get me over the initial problem. Much appreciated.

yoyo

K-Lite codecs, download and install the standard package for this on the windows machine to solve playback issiues

Nick