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I'm working on a G4 12" iBook and I've got all kinds of video playback problems. I read that the old 700-800MHz models had no problems with Xvid/divx playback, so I figure I've got the wrong codecs.

So where are Mac codecs? Finding win32 codecs is as easy as falling off a log, but looking for quicktime components for things like mp3 audio decoding or whatever turns up a whole lot of nothing.

Most of the media I'm using is xvid video, MP3 sound. Quicktime plays the video fine, but no sound, and vlc gives me sound, but it's jumpy as hell. I figure I need a quicktime component for MP3 playback, but I can't find one. Mac vlc says it's 'mpa' audio, but vlc on my win32 machines correctly identifies mp3 (my win32 machines are using a LAME mp3 codec: the only LAME codecs I've found for Mac are encoders). Being a total Mac n00b, I'm looking for some help. Everyone else I know with an iBook doesn't have wierd problems like this with media.

This isn't exactly what you asked for, but MPlayer for OS X comes with a crapload of codecs that apparently only work with it. So if you want to watch a video, MPlayer will do that---but it won't help VLC or QuickTime.

That said, MPlayer rocks. It serves my needs.

The most QuickTime component for those kinds of files is 3ivx, IIRC.

Download the DivX 5.2.1 codec. It will play sound in your AVIs. Also, 3ivx will play back XviD-encoded video. The components are out there. You just have to dig a bit.

I'd read that 3ivx would solve both the video- and audio-problems, but I had more success just using the xvid codec by itself. I tried 5.2.1, but since I'm using Tiger it just shits it's pants (apparently a known issue). However, someone referred me to the Divx Fusion beta, I installed it, and everything is fine.

I have Mplayer sitting on my server: is it worth installing it alongside vlc and qt? I don't ever want anyone using qt(huge footprint, poor features in the free version, long load times) but the iBook is owned by a non-computer user, so I don't want to clutter it up.

Two unrelated questions: where is the list of MIME associations (I can access them one at a time through 'get info' or through the controlling app, but I want to check all of them like in windows) and how do I get a network share to reconnect on startup/login. I connected and dragged it into the users 'login' thingy, but it doesn't actually work. I think apple-K might be a bit beyond her, so I'm looking for a solution.

Okay, now it's getting annoying. After solving the issue and spending three hours watching flawless episodes of Invader Zim, Doctor Who and FF:AC, the iBook is stuttering again a few restarts later. Reinstalling Fusion didn't help, and mplayer stutters as well (although less often). During playback CPU usage never goes over ~45%, local and remote files have the same problem, and the only solution I've found is 'convert your 140Gb of video files into lame QT ones', which is totally unacceptable.

Why is this such an issue? Now that I know what the problem is, I find that *everyone* knows OS X has problems with AC3 or MP3 audio streams on media.

One problem is that QT has some issues with decoding AVI files with VBR audio streams, since AVI isn't supposed to have VBR audio, only CBR.

As I discovered!

I've got a workaround, by using mplayer and spinning the read buffer out to 8Mb. It just shouldn't be necessary: the idea that the whole OS X platform can't play such a common format is quite surprising.

If the DivX codec is giving you problems, download the DivX Fusion beta. I've been using it for a while now, and it's been pretty rock-solid with most AVIs. As for AC3 decoding, you don't have much choice but extracting the AC3 stream and re-encoding it to AAC or some other proper format. (Why people are putting fucking AC3 in an AVI is beyond me.)

Hopefully the MP4 container will catch on with the iPod video's popularity. Then maybe AVI can finally fucking die.

Two unrelated questions: where is the list of MIME associations (I can access them one at a time through 'get info' or through the controlling app, but I want to check all of them like in windows)

RCDefaultApp will help you.

and how do I get a network share to reconnect on startup/login. I connected and dragged it into the users 'login' thingy, but it doesn't actually work. I think apple-K might be a bit beyond her, so I'm looking for a solution.

Mount the network share. Open System Preferences > Accounts. Then select the user you wish to modify and hit the "Login Items" tab. Then simply drag the network share into the list.

I tried mounting the share and dragging the share icon from the desktop into the 'login' window, and it's added to the list with the iTunes helper. It just doesn't work. It's over a wireless connection, so maybe it's trying to connect to the share before the wireless is on the right network?

I tried the Fusion beta, and it seemed to fix everything: the next morning it was back to jerky bullshit. At least with it installed SOME avis (ones without AC3 audio) work fine.

AC3 encoding is used for a couple reasons:

It's one of the possible encodings on a DVD, so by using it, there isn't any degradation associated with transcoding the sound stream. This means that a fairly high quality sound can be acheived.

It's understood by home theatre receivers, so there when it's piped as a digital stream into the receiver, there isn't any need to transcode it again, or convert to analog first.

Beowulf wrote:AC3 encoding is used for a couple reasons:

It's one of the possible encodings on a DVD, so by using it, there isn't any degradation associated with transcoding the sound stream. This means that a fairly high quality sound can be acheived.

I understand what AC3 is, but it's a multi-channel, VBR format. Hacking AVI to handle it is simply absurd. If your container can't handle modern audio formats without gratuitous hacking, it's time for another container.