What Files Types Is A Mac Compatible With?

Question

Thinking of getting a Mac Book what video & other file types can a Mac play (xvid, mpg, jpg etc).

Answer 1

It's not the Mac, it's the multi-media player that determines what file types you can play. And actually, Mac does use file extensions. But they will usually play just fine even if you accidentally erase the extension.

The Apple multi-media software is QuickTime which supports the following file types:

* 3DMF (Mac OS 9 & Windows)
* 3GPP
* 3GPP2
* AIFF
* AMC
* AMR
* Animated GIF
* AU
* Audio CD Data (Mac OS 9)
* AVI
* BMP
* CAF (Mac OS X)
* Cubic VR
* DLS
* DV
* FLC
* GIF
* GSM
* JPEG/JFIF
* Karaoke
* MacPaint
* MIDI
* MPEG-1
* MP3 (MPEG-1, Layer 3)
* M3U (MP3 Playlist files)
* MPEG-2**
* MPEG-4
* MQV
* M4A, M4B, M4P (iTunes 4 audio), M4V (iTunes video)
* PDF (Mac OS X)
* Photoshop*
* PICS
* PICT
* PLS
* PNG
* Quartz Composer Composition (Mac OS X)
* QCP (Mac OS 9 & Windows)
* QuickTime Image File
* QuickTime Movie
* SD2 (Mac OS 9 & Windows)
* SDP
* SDV
* SF2 (SoundFont 2)
* SGI
* SMIL
* Targa
* Text
* TIFF*
* TIFF Fax
* VDU (Sony Video Disk Unit)
* Virtual Reality (VR)
* Wave

In addition, you can get the free RealOne Player and free Windows Media Player for Mac. If you want to play any Windows media video in a web browser, you will also need to download Flip4Mac plugin that plays Windows media through QuickTime.

Answer 2

Macs don't use file extensions like jpg, mpg etc. That's actually only really used by Windows, not other operating systems - it's a holdover from the old DOS days. But Macs can open image files and play video files, and you can install codes like xvid on them.