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General discussion

.sit Files and DivX Problems

Sep 10, 2005 12:58PM PDT

New Mac convert! Bought a $699 Mac mini on 9/5/05. Freedom from Windows is sweet!

Anyways, to my questions...

1) I cannot find a codec for .avi files for Quicktime 7. DivX isn't Tiger/Quicktime 7-friendly, so I'm using a program called VLC right now. Any advice would be appreciated. I was told DivX 5.1.1 would work, but it is .sit file, which leads to my second question...

2) What do I do with .sit files?! A lot of programs I want to use are downloaded as .sit files, and Tiger doesn't recognize them. What do I do to install my program and use these files?

Running: Mac mini, 1.42GHz G4 Processor, 512MB RAM, 80GB Hard Drive, Quicktime 7, OS X Tiger, SuperDrive, AirPort Extreme, Bluetooth

Discussion is locked

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Answers
Sep 10, 2005 11:55PM PDT

Welcome to the Bright Side.
VLC is probably about the best you are going to do for AVI files. There are a number of sites that claim to have a QuickTime plugin for AVI but I have not found one that works well. However, I'm sure someone will come up with a better answer than that.
On to the .sit files. This is the equivalent of the ZIP file in the PC world. You will need to get yourself a FREE copy of Stuffit Expander. I'm sure you have found the place, under the Apple symbol at the top left of the screen, that says "Mac OS X Software". You will find a wealth of software up there. To make it easier for you, here is the link:
www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/ system_disk_utilities/stuffitexpander.htm
Download it and follow the instructions and after that, you will have no problems with .sit/.hqx/.sitx/zip/rar/and a whole host of other compression formats.
To make life a little easier for you, and to keep the desktop reasonably clear, create a new folder on the desktop and name it, "Downloaded Files". Open Safari and go to the preferences: Under the General tab, where it says Download files to: click the drop down arrow, select Other. When the window opens, click on Desktop in the Sidebar and then click once on your downloaded files folder. Click Select. Now everything that you download will go to that folder. Set Stuffit Expander to expand in the same place as the original and you will no longer have to search for your files.

P

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avi files
Sep 12, 2005 7:59PM PDT

Welcome to the sunny side of the street!

I thought that all Macs came with Stuffit Expander as standard. Odd.

I'm sure you've found the DivX website but just in case, it's here. http://www.divx.com/divx/mac/divx6.php

As far as avi files go, the problem isn''t just DivX. AVI is a container format (so is Quicktime). What that means, is that the video might be encoded using any number of codec's, DviX being one of them. On top of that, the audio might be encoded with any one of a wide range of audio codecs, completely independent of the video codec. After the audio and video are encoded, they are rapped in a container called AVI.

This is why there isn't any one "catch all" avi codec. It is also why Quicktime will play some avi files with no problem, will play some without the audio, and others without video.

Until Quicktime gets it's act together, (and how hard could it be, if there's shareware and freeware doing it) I've come up with a 5 year... er.. I mean 5 piece plan. That's 5 pieces of software, All of them are free. With them, you can play just about anything.

1) Quicktime
2) VLC
3) MPlayer OSX
4) Windows Media Player
5) Real Media Player

Not a great solution, but until Steve get's tired of playing with songs on the internet, and decides to put the weight of Apple behind video again, it's what I came up with.

Even the sunny side of the street has a few cracks in the pavement.

Lampie

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Expander
Sep 12, 2005 9:42PM PDT

Seems that Expander is no longer bundled with the OS on the new machines. It has been quietly going on for some time.
Not sure I see the problem, other than Allume wanting people to see more of their product than just the, it's invisible and it works-by itself, expander. You will be surprised, well maybe not, at the number of people who have no idea what program it is that deals with compressed files for them.

P

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I can understand that
Sep 15, 2005 9:26PM PDT

If, as a business, you give away product for free, I guess you should get the recognition for it, at least from those who recieved it.

Quicken has no problem doing it, or getting the recognition. It seems there would be an answer for Stuffit as well. Maybe not quite so "backround", or a splash screen every time you expand something, like shareware does.

Oh well, time marches on.

Lampie