# Movie (.avi) File transfering



## Sedukai (Jul 10, 2006)

After hours of sitting and staring at the screens of my brand spankin new MacBook Pro and year old Dell running Windows XP Media Edition, I decided to try to ask some questions.

I recently learned how to connect my MacBook Pro and PC in order to share files. This works fine... all files are transfered normally, except for a distict type which I am dying to get.

      A little more background... I use a program called FRAPS to record 'movie' footage on my PC. Essentially, it records everything that my monitor shows and saves it onto my computer as a .avi format. It is defaulted to open with Windows Media Player.
      What I want to do with these files, though, is transfer them onto my MacBook and use its editting software to edit a nice looking movie  (Windows MovieMaker sucks... ).
      When i go to transfer the files, all is well. The transfer is successful, but there is a flaw. When I click on and play the new file on my MacBook, the defaulted QUICKTIME program displays a blank white screen to reveal NO PICTURE and ONLY SOUND.


      Now, to fix this problem, i tried downloadng a few AddOn's to the quicktime program such as the DivX codec and DixX player. I even installed Windows MediaPlayer 9 (which came wth my Microsoft Office disk) to try to play it. These, too, were unseccussful.

     My question is this. How can I make them play? I so desparately want to edit my footage. Thanks to anyone and everyone who responds.


Quick recap

FRAPS ->  .avi  ->  transfer successful  ->  new .avi file will not work on MacBook Pro


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## Mikuro (Jul 10, 2006)

I've never used FRAPS, so a bit more info would be helpful. Specifically, what codecs are used in the movie? You can determine this by opening the movie in QuickTime Player and selecting "Show Movie Info" from the Window menu. It ought to say something like "IV50" or "WMV3" under the "Format" heading.

If it says WMV3, you should try installing the Popwire WMV-9 Component or wait for an Intel-compatible version of Flip4Mac's WMV Player component. Both of these products allow for playback of Windows Media video in QuickTime.


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## Sedukai (Jul 10, 2006)

So I attempted to play the file through Quicktime on my PC. Immediately, a warning popped up that said I may need to install new components in order to make the video work. I ignored it and played anyways, following your instrustions on finding the format.

Surprisingly, under the Format part, it says this. Quote:


   , 640 x 512, unknown


Newsflash, I just read this on the FRAPS support page.

Where can I find the custom Fraps FPS1 codec?

The Fraps codec (FPS1) is put on the system when you install Fraps. If you've reinstalled Windows you will also need to reinstall Fraps in order to play back your movies.

Please keep in mind that if you want to give your raw footage to another person they will also need to have Fraps installed.




This may work, but the dilemma in my mind is that when Fraps records, it is automatically saved as a .avi file. Why should i need FRAPS to view this movie file? [Edit: Ohhhhhh the FRAPS CODEC is needed to view. Must try!] I'll try this before i try what you suggested solely because the format says UNKNOWN instead of IV50 or WMV3. haha. I think this solves the unknown codec problem, however.


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## Sedukai (Jul 10, 2006)

sigh... before i go about doing that, something is amiss.

I accidentally assigned some othe program (blizzard downloader) as the default program to run, in this case,  .exe installation files. So, when i click on the FRAPS INSTALLATION file, it is openned with some other program. Eh... How do  fix that.


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## camgangrel21 (Jul 10, 2006)

What you can do is see if Divix player can open and play the files right. If so then it is some off standard of MP4. I would say then if that is the case use Divx on the mac or on the windows box and make then into a Dvix .avi file then you should be able to use iMovie Hd or any other editor that uses the quicktime framework. that is how Divx file are able to be played and edited on the mac using a QT plugin.
I hope that helps.


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## camgangrel21 (Jul 10, 2006)

Will if you are not running boot camp or parallels then you can not run a .exe file on your new mac. 2nd just as a FYI to be able to set what run when you click on it. Just right click the file or option click and the click get info the there is a drop down menu that says. Open with click the little arrow and the in the drop down menu there set what ever app you want to run the file from now on. I hope that helps you out there.


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## fryke (Jul 10, 2006)

If what I quote here is true: "Where can I find the custom Fraps FPS1 codec?" --- You're probably stuck. There is no such codec for the Mac - period. You'll need to first convert the video on the PC to something useful.


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## Mikuro (Jul 10, 2006)

exe is a Windows application format. Any software packaged that way is not Mac-compatible. Fraps says it is "for Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and x64 Editions". So...no Mac version.

You could try playing the file with VLC (which _might_ work, since it uses some open-source tools that supposedly support the fraps codec), but that won't let you edit the movie in iMovie or anything.

The only way you're going to get to edit these movies in iMovie is to convert it to some standard format first, like MPEG4. If VLC can play the file, it should be able to convert it to a QuickTime-compatible MPEG4 file. Otherwise, you'll need to convert it on your PC.

Remember that AVI is just a container format, and can hold just about any kind of audio and video data. So even if a file is an AVI, you won't be able to play it with an AVI-compatible player unless that player has access to all the codecs used in that particular file. There are at least half a dozen different video codecs commonly used in AVI files today.


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## Sedukai (Jul 10, 2006)

fryke said:


> If what I quote here is true: "Where can I find the custom Fraps FPS1 codec?" --- You're probably stuck. There is no such codec for the Mac - period. You'll need to first convert the video on the PC to something useful.



any program suggestions? I've never gotten any of those converting softwares to really work. Regardless, what do you suggest?


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## Sedukai (Jul 10, 2006)

anything?


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## Mikuro (Jul 11, 2006)

Sedukai said:


> anything?


I already mentioned a program on the Mac you could use. On the PC, I can't really say, but VirtualDub seems to be the premier video converter.


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