Friday, September 08, 2006

AVI no-sound problem solved today (finally)


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No sound when trying to play back an AVI clip on your Mac? This could be the solution.
If you want to play back avi using quicktime that contain mp2 mpeg1, layer 2 audio (popular when encoding on windows using the divx format and common tools) then this app adds the necessary sound codec (a52).

Download the A52Codec as part of the
Perian install and all those movies that played with no sound in quicktime will now work. It's a universal binary as well. I used to have to play these files with VLC (which is great for some file formats) but now you have the option with Quicktime too and they'll play in Front Row.

Fantastic - my movie experience going from Mac to Windows is complete.

The other amazing application I use to get some older mpeg1/mpeg2 movies from my camera into iDVD HD is Mpeg Streamclip. This also does "save-as" style converts to Apple Quicktime, H264 etc. Excellent application. I export my mpeg2 clips to DV format and the go into iDVD HD really well.

The A52Codec used to be available as a separate download - it's now part of the Perian development effort. Many thanks to the Perian team.

132 comments:

Anonymous said...

I truly appreciated this post.
For months, I could not figure out why I was not getting audio from AVI files when I played them on my Macs with QuickTime. It was very frustrating, to say the least.
Yesterday, I googled for AVI sound on Mac and I located your post. I had suspected that it was a codec issue. But, I just could not figure out which codec it was.
Thanks so much again.

Narbs said...

No problems, glad to help! That was useful for me too...

Anonymous said...

worked fine for me with a newer rip but not for an older one... im happy thanks heaps

Narbs said...

Just downloaded Democracy for Mac - it's looking good and plays AVI files plus some other codecs - and plays MOV files in fullscreen.

Definitely worth a look - I'll post an article on this one.

http://www.getdemocracy.com/downloads/

Anonymous said...

This still didn't help, but thanks anyway! I've been looking all over and can't find a way to play my .avi movies.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for this. There are many more movies now that I will be able to enjoy through Front Row!

B.C OKMEN said...

thank you so much.i looked everywhere for a solution to no avail.and i found your post from google with no sound on quick time and found my solution.
thank you,thank you and thank you from istanbul,turkey

Anonymous said...

sound returns to quicktime immediately after installing the program you mentioned. thank you.

Anonymous said...

thank you!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Thankyou.

It works!


You're a legend for publishing this.


Regards,


-Mike V.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe it worked so quickly with the download and the install. Thank you for posting how to fix the issue, it would have taken a lot longer than clicking on the link.

Unknown said...

Whoever posted this is the best person in the world.

Anonymous said...

A52 is an open source variant of Dolby Digital (AC-3), and is not related to MPEG stream decoding. Might want to update your post.

Narbs said...

I agree that A52 is a sound codec and not related to mpeg stream decoding except when certain applications use the A52 codec as the sound track in certain AVI files. In this instance the mpeg stream plays back but the Mac has no decoder for the A52 sound codec and so no sound plays. This article is written to help people play back the sound. Tell me if I've missed something but that's my understanding.

Unknown said...

Thank you sooo much! my sound now works!!! amazing!

Martin said...

I love you!!!! thanks, it works. :-)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this great tip!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much! I have been wanting to watch my videos for so long. Great easy to follow instructions on the CODEC as well.

Anonymous said...

It works! Thank you!

Jul'S said...

This really works. Thank you so much. I really appreciate this.

Anonymous said...

FINALLY! This rules. Thank you Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Superb solution to a problem that as a newer Mac user was beginning to elude me. Instant success. Thank you very much
Danny, Kent, England

Anonymous said...

that rocks. thanks

Anonymous said...

That was absolutely fantastic! Thanks for the help!

Chris said...

Thank you very much for posting this!

Anonymous said...

oh my god, thanks so much, it has been the end of a rather frustrating journey....
cheers
www.stevewells-photo.com

Anonymous said...

worked great.
I dragged the two codec files in to my Library/Components and Library/Quicktime folders, as instructed, and the movie audio started playing straight away.
Thanks

Unknown said...

thank-you! A New Orleanian really appreciates this. now.... can you help me dry out my house?

;-).... just kidding... we dried out long long ago.

Anonymous said...

thanks pal, you rule!

octoberskyy said...

THIS IS THE BEST.

Anonymous said...

Fair play, that had my head wrecked for months! Ta for sharing that info, top man!

Anonymous said...

Hi there, thanks so much for posting this. The software you listed didn't work for me (I was trying to get a .avi file of an old TV movie (Genesis II) to work), BUT it did lead me down a path of links/ downloads of all kinds of players like the one your recommended, which I didn't know where even available before. My eventual sucess came with:
MPlayer OS X 2 (MPlayer OS X version 2.0 (2.0b9r5))

And it worked on this moldy oldy for me on my G5
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/16623

Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tip!

Anonymous said...

you're the god:)))) finaly working after hours of trying....thanx

Anonymous said...

you are my new hero b!
thanks b,, now i can get stoned and watch movies all day!

Frank said...

So, can I ditch VLC now? Or can it play stuff that quicktime can't?

Narbs said...

I wouldn't ditch VLC - you can play more stuff with this fix but occasionally I still use VLC to play out-of-region DVDs that Apple's DVD player can't play. The windows media codecs just released (Flip4Mac) are much better now so that helps with playing AVI and WMV files.
Short answer - yeah remove it if you want. Longer answer - keep it because despite codec support getting better all the time VLC is still a swiss army knife worth having and keeping up to date.

Unknown said...

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I've been frustrated by this for ages and I am grateful!

Anonymous said...

wow.... just awesome how easy that was! finding this was another thing though... anyway, thanks so much, worked perfectly!

m. said...

thanks a lot, this worked instantly!

Stace said...

you are soooo awesome! this totally fixed my problem :)

Made my week!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Update: after rebooting, the update DID work perfectly for me on my G5. I didn't realize I hadn't rebooted after installing and it made a difference. Videos all playing now perfectly with sound.

KInd of off topic, but in my hunt for conversion software I found a great Mac application called: Visual Hub http://www.techspansion.com/visualhub/
does all kinds of conversions as well as burns DVDs

Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

thank you so much! Like kunio mitsuma, i've gone for months wondering why i couldn't get sound with my .avi files on my mac, i was spending ages putting them on my pc and converting them just so i could play them on the mac, now...you've saved me so much time! Urgh, can't believe i didn't think to google this before. Thanks again

Anonymous said...

This is how it should be on the net. Thanks for posting man. The best / dan.

Anonymous said...

Fab! Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Thanks heaps!

Anonymous said...

this works 100%, thank you for the info,ive been deleting files off my comp because everything i dl'd never worked.this does thanks a bunch!

Anonymous said...

Thanx man no more sound deprivation!

Anonymous said...

You are an absolute LEGEND!!
I have been searching for so long for this. now no more downloading movies/tv shows to be told i need additional software in order to have proper playback.
Thats all, you're a champ!

Anonymous said...

Yah, you rock pal! Thanks a million!

Ryan
The Laughable News

Anonymous said...

this did work, but recently it hasn't. I have the codec installed but for some reason files that i previously had sound when using quicktime, now don't. i cant work out why?

if anyone has had a similar problem and solved it i would be grateful if you can share how

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the post. I had irreplaceable home movies that I thought were lost. It was such great help!

Anonymous said...

Thanks buddy don't know what else I would have done.

Anonymous said...

Thankyou SO much! Highly appreciated this post- I've had my Mac since December and still have the occasional niggly problem which I just don't know how to solve.. one less thanks to you!

Anonymous said...

still doesn't work :(

Anonymous said...

Best info on the internet for mac users!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Wow...thanks. Easy and worked perfectly

Loki said...

He's not kidding, guys, it works! I downloaded it (took like five seconds) you drag and drop the files, restart quicktime, and then bam! You're in the clear!

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

You're like the Ghandi of the internet. Thanks man!

JohannPaul said...

Thank you so much!
It works very well!

Anonymous said...

Works great but I had to reboot for it to work unlike most others here.

Unknown said...

This worked instantly!
All I had to do was download, copy the files as indicated, close QuickTime and open the file to launch QuickTime again.
You rule.

Anonymous said...

HELP! No audio on AVI movies using Quicktime. Running a MacBook, 10.5, all software updated, I have installed and reinstalled A52, still no audio. Movie properties show MPEG Layer 3 audio, all audios are ON (ie, not muted). Computer outputs audio for other apps and movies....whats going on???? Can anyone help? Do I need to remove and then reinstall Quicktime perhaps???

Narbs said...

Try rebooting. Reinstalling quicktime might work. Sound prefs check audio sources.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the suggestions narbs (Ref: HELP!). Have rebooted, have downloaded a new QT file and reinstalled, still not working. Is there some kind of setting buried in my system that could have gotten goofed up? Haven't downloaded/installed anything lately that I think could conflict with audio. Just updated my VLC and that works great but would like to keep using QT if I can fix it....anything else you could suggest.....thanx

Anonymous said...

Ref: HELP! Perion fixed it....whew! Thanks anyway!!
http://www.perian.org/ if anyone else needs it....

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much! This was exactly what I needed. Now all my audio plays fine. ^_^

Kuffs said...

Perian worked for me.
Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much. worked like a treat first time. been looking for ages for something that'll play sound in quicktime. thanks again

Unknown said...

I followed the link and there is nothing there, I searched A52Codec on version tracker with no results...help

Narbs said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

AWESOME!!! Thanks a lot, it works great.

Anonymous said...

Perian did the job for me too!

Thanks community!

Anonymous said...

can someone please help me. It doesn't seem to be working for me. I have an avi file with no sound. I have Perian and I don't know how to use it. I also have mpeg streamclip and i don't know what to do with it in regards to this file format. Hopefully someone can help.

Narbs said...

Anonymous... if you can't get sound from your AVI, try playing it on a Windows machine first and make sure that works. Try playing it through VLC on your Mac (google for it - you'll find it). After you install Perian, reboot - that might help. You don't need to know anything in particular to use Perian - it's a set of tools for applications to use. When in MpegStreamclip, just open the AVI file then export it as Quicktime. There's a few ideas.

Unknown said...

Ah! great! thanks a lot!

Anonymous said...

This also helps when converting .avis to DVD with iDVD. Before installing these codecs it would not demux and remux the audio from .avis. Works perfectly now..

Thanks..

Anonymous said...

Fantastic! Thank you for your help!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much, you make the growing mac world accelerating.... I needed that device so much, and finally I got it... Thanks!!!!!

Alexi said...

March/31/2009

I wanted to let you guys know that I have downloaded a million different things and this happens to be the one that worked!! Thank you so much, it was a post from 2006 and worked perfectly. Thank you!

Unknown said...

Perfect. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

I'm oh so skeptical about wonder fixes, but you've just proved me oh so wrong. Perfect, instantaneous fix. Thanks!

jill hannes said...

Works for me! Thank you so much

James C. said...

Thank you so much! It works perfectly :)

tish said...

thank you so much. I was freaking out as to how I had downloaded so many movies yet wasn't able to get any sound from the avi files.

appreciate it.

Anonymous said...

halle-freakin-lujah!!!! you are the SHIZ.

Anonymous said...

Wow Thank you sooo much i love u man !!!!!

Unknown said...

Thank you so much!!!

Unknown said...

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Anonymous said...

thank you so much, I've spent the last 3 months watching the movies out of my mac because I couldn't write them on a DVD due to the missing codec. I can't believe all I had to do is google "quicktime avi no sound" to find your post!!!!!!

Joel Miller said...

Thank you SO MUCH! It worked! Now I have sound on the AVI files that didn't have it before!

Anonymous said...

Yes. Just another person who searched for this answer and found this post at long last. Thanks a million. Yada yada yada.

Unknown said...

Thanks, mate. I needed to restart but works like a dream now!

Anonymous said...

thank you so much!!!!
You are a real life saver.
Or something to that effect

DavidMoreen said...

Thanks you so much, I amazed that it worked for the fist time!

Anonymous said...

Easy as pie, worked like a charm, quick as lightning and as good as gold... Great fix and post. Thanks you so much

Anonymous said...

Ah! Didn't work for me :(

But Miro did and I'm still glad to have Perian installed!

Thanks!!

Danny said...

WOW! Quick fix! Thanks a lot!

Unknown said...

THANK YOU, JESUS

Anonymous said...

Oh My god. thank you so much for this!!

OneClickOfTheFingers said...

as so many have said, thank you.
It has also taken me many months to find your solution - this is gold.
Gratitude has many words but only one feeling, and it is that which I feel now.
Live well.
Peace
Will

Grace said...

woooh thanks! my avi files have been restored to their former glory

Perrywise said...

Works like a charm, a big thanks from Belgium!

Anonymous said...

i love you

jstjck78 said...

All hail the PO & Perian!

Anonymous said...

Worked perfectly and took me less than a minute to set up!

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Worked like a charm. Thank you

Anonymous said...

At first I thought it didnt work. Then quit quicktime, reopened it and bingo it worked... You are a genius!

Anonymous said...

You have improved my life astronomically. Thank you!

Noah said...

thank you so much! everyone, make sure that you do not have quicktime open when you install the program. and if you do, it should work fine after you close/reopen the program.

thanks a ton for the easy quick-fix!! woooo!

Anonymous said...

Hello
First I had two avi files which would play without audio on my mac 10.6.2.
After downloading perian one avi file works perfectly, but the other suddenly shows only 5 seconds instead of one hour, it plays (with sound) only five seconds and then stops! before perian it would play the all movie without sound...Any idea of what happened and how to fix it ?? many thanks !

Narbs said...

First, reboot. It's helped others here.

Try downloading VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) and see if it works in that - you could just have a bad video file.

If VLC works, then you could try loading it in MpegStreamClip and converting it to a H264 m4v file (http://www.squared5.com/). It's a great piece of software that will convert from many AVI formats to H264.

Also, try it on another PC and see if it works - just to check it's not something with your computer.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, worked! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU!! :)

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU!!! :)

Anonymous said...

Thank You!!! You Complete Star!!!!! :D :D :D

I've been running about trying to find codecs... o-0!!!... trying to figure out this problem ... Seriously!!! Thank You!! ;D

Anonymous said...

Thanks! That worked for me Mac OS X Leopard 10.6.

Tommy Hughes said...

Wow I have tried about 20 different codec packages and finally this one works, YOU ROCK...

Unknown said...

hey, I have a mac, I'm trying to convert avi's into mpeg-4's sos I can put them on my ipod. Will this perian codec help me? I've been trying to use the 4media mp4 converter to convert the files but I'm getting no sound in or out.

Narbs said...

Daniel: install the Perian codec then use MpegStreamClip to convert the clip. It's a free, open source converter. Perian installs the audio codec you need and MpegStreamClip will convert avis to mp4 with the h264 codec.

SJ said...

genius. I googled .avi "no sound" mac and came across this. I had to restart quicktime band then PRESTO it worked! I'm a total roob so I don't understand 1/2 of these other comments and have no idea what a coded is but YAY!

Doug T said...

THANK YOU!!! I THINK I LOVE YOU NOW!!!!

Unknown said...

I cannot thank you enough for this. U made a positive contribution to the world of mac users with this post. Thank you, sir!

Kristin said...

Thank you so much!! This worked like a charm!

Dick said...

This is absolutely fantastic. Have had this problem a few times & never managed to resolve it. Thank you so much!
Dick

Go Cubs! said...

Thank you so much, I am so happy audio FINALLY works when playing QuickTime on my mac. I am so glad I found your post I have tried to fix my audio a few times but nothing worked and I was so frustrated with no audio.

I am so glad I found this post, thank you so much you cannot believe how happy I am!

Unknown said...

RIGHT AWWNNN!!!!! Man I've been looking for a solution for this all nite! Thanks a lot for the reference. Perian rules

Robert Mullen III said...

Worked perfect and took less than 5 minutes! Thank you!

Robert Mullen III said...

Worked perfect and took less than 5 minutes! Thank you!

LINDA REGINA said...

it works! i was so worried my movies don't have any sound at all..THANK YOU!

Sarah Lazio-Maimone said...

you just saved my life! thank you

Sarah Lazio-Maimone said...

You just saved my life! Thank you :)