When playing certain AVI movie files with the QuickTime Player, the video frames are white and the following dialog box appears: "You may experience problems playing a video track in 'filename.avi' because the required compressor could not be found."
Symptom
When playing certain AVI movie files with the QuickTime Player, the video frames are white and an alert box with this message appears:
"You may experience problems playing a video track in 'filename.avi' because the required compressor could not be found."
Important: The Indeo Video codecs described in this document are not available for Mac OS X. If you have AVI movies that use Indeo Video codecs, you may watch them using QuickTime Player after starting up your computer in Mac OS 9 and following the instructions in this document. For instructions on how to start up your computer in Mac OS 9, see "How to Switch Between Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X".
Solution
Download and install the missing codec (COmpressor/DECompressor). In most cases, it will be one of the Indeo Video codecs. The table lists the combinations of QuickTime and Indeo available for Mac OS 9 and Microsoft Windows. Although not mentioned by version number in the chart below, QuickTime 4, QuickTime 5, and QuickTime 6 can be used with Indeo video codecs.
| Compatible QuickTime Version | Codec Filename | Indeo Video Version | Download Document |
| QuickTime 2.0 or later for Macintosh | Indeo Video | Indeo Video R3.2 | 30903 |
| QuickTime 3.0 or later for Macintosh | Indeo Video 4 | Indeo Video 4.4 | 30904 |
| QuickTime 3.0 or later for Macintosh | Indeo Video 4 | Indeo Video 4.4 | 60366 |
| QuickTime 2.0 or later for Windows (16-bit) | Iv32qt16.qtc | Indeo Video R3.2 | |
| QuickTime 2.0 or later for Windows (32-bit) | Iv32qt32.qtc | Indeo Video R3.2 | |
| QuickTime 3 for Windows | Indeo4.qtx | Indeo Video 4.4 | |
| QuickTime 4 for Windows | ir50_32.qtx | Indeo Video 5.0 | 60369 |
Note: Later versions of Indeo Video cannot handle tracks compressed with earlier versions. For this reason, more than one version of the codec can be installed at the same time. Using the QuickTime MoviePlayer or QuickTime Player, you may be able to determine which codec was used to compress an audio or video track:
- Open the file in QuickTime Player.
- Choose Get Movie Properties from the Movie menu.
- Choose Sound Track or Video Track from the left pop-up menu in the Properties window.
- Choose Format from the right pop-up menu. The Data Format section shows the codec. In the example shown, the Intel Indeo® Video R3.2 codec was used to compress the movie "MyVideo.avi".
Additional information
When this symptom occurs QuickTime encountered a track compressed using an incompatible codec (COmpressor/DECompressor), or one for which the supporting QuickTime-compatible software is not installed. The message also appears with QuickTime for Windows when the codec required is not active in the Windows Registry for use with QuickTime.
The situation is not unique to AVI files. QuickTime provides built-in support for AVI, but AVI is not a codec itself. It is a file format central to Microsoft Video for Windows (VfW), and one for which a variety of codecs may be used, such as Cinepak or Indeo Video.
Though QuickTime has long supported Cinepak, QuickTime for Macintosh does not include any version of the Indeo Video codec. In order for QuickTime to play back a media track compressed with Indeo Video (or any other codec not included with QuickTime), it must be installed separately.
Important: Information about products not manufactured by Apple is provided for information purposes only, and does not constitute Apple's recommendation or endorsement. Please contact the vendor for additional information.