Chromebooks may not be the number one on the best-seller charts for laptops , but they're certainly close. Consider what you use a chromebook for: Taking notes, tweeting, writing a paper or post at the coffee shop, or checking your email. There is no doubt that one of the most exciting thing you can do with Chromebook is watching movies on the move, because its battery life is long and can be charged very quickly. However, for most people, the Chromebooks are still struggling more than Mac, Windows or Linux computers when it comes to flawlessly playing every video file you throw at them. For example, though Chromebook claims to support AVI formats, somtimes we still fail to play AVI on Chromebook. For example:
"I am trying to play a video file in AVI, for some reason when I click play, could only hear the sound but it is all black, so only audio but no video. HELP~~ please~~ appreciated! Chromebook Model: HP."----- From Chromebook Central Help Forum
So what's the matter? Check out the reason and solution here.
Why Chromebook can't play AVI files?
As other multimedia devices, Chromebook only supports some kinds of video and music files. If you want to play your video in your Chromebook, make sure your video is compatible with the device first.
The following list are supported by Chromebook:
Media: .3gp, .avi, .mov, .mp4, .m4v, .m4a, .mp3, .mkv, .ogv, .ogm, .ogg, .oga, .webm, .wav
| Container | Video codec | Audio codec |
|---|---|---|
| ogv | Theora | -- |
| webm | VP8 VP9 |
Opus Vorbis |
| mp4 | H264 | -- |
| MPEG4 | -- | |
| mov | MPEG4 | -- |
| H264 | -- | |
| avi | MPEG4 | MP3 |
| DIVX | MP3 | |
| XVID | MP3 | |
| 3gp | H264 | AAC |
| MPEG4 | AMR-NB |
According to the above list, Chromebook supports AVI file format, actually only those encoded with MPEG-4, DIVX and XVID codec. That's why some AVI files will not be supported by Chromebook. Providing you want to play all kinds of AVI on Chromebook easily, it's wise to turn to a AVI video converter to convert AVI to a fully compatible format with Chromebook.
A Superb AVI Video Converter for Chromebook
Nowadays, there are a large amount of video converters flocking in the market. Only the fittest catering to the users' needs survive, among which, a powerful video converter – Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate occupies the dominance over the rest due to its practical features, high quality, fast speed, coupled with clear interface.
It is an easy-to-use yet professional video conversion software to convert AVI files to Chromebook supported media format and codec with original image and audio quality. In addition, you can not only transcode AVI to your Chromebook without any issue, but also encode other videos, such as MKV, WMV, etc. to Chromebook or other portable devices, like iPad, Samsung tablet, Surface, HTC,etc. with professional profile. With a wide range of splendid functions, being superior to other video converters, Pavtube AVI Video converter offers powerful video editing function such as video trimming, cropping, merging and you also can set encoding parameters including resolution, bit rate, frame rate, aspect ratio etc.
The installation is as easy as ABC and you can load the video files by directly dragging. The batch conversion feture will save you lots of video encoding time. Just download the perfect AVI video converter to solve all AVI on Chromebook playback issues. For Mac users, Pavtube iMedia Converter for Mac is also a helpful application to encode videos for further usage. I'll guide you through it step-by-step.
Steps to Convert AVI to Chromebook Playable Video
Step 1. Load AVI files
Click "Add Video/Audio" button on the main interface to load your AVI video files to the AVI to Chromebook converter program. Drag&Drop function is included. Batch conversion is supported, so you can load more than one file to save time.
Step 2: Choose Chromebook supported video
Hit "Format" list, you will find hundreds of video formats listed in AVI to Chromebook conveter. Hovering over "HD Video" option, here you get the "H.264 HD Video(*.mp4)". This profile not only can offer us perfect compatibility with Chromebook, but also give us high resolution. Of course, you also can choose MOV, AVI, 3GP, WebM video files that Chromebook support to play.
Step 3: Adjust output playback settings for Chromebook
Click "Settings" to open "Profile" settings window, here you can flexibly tweak the output video codec, bit rate, frame rate, resolution, audio codec, bit rate, sample rate and channels according to your own needs.
Step 4. Start AVI to Chromebook conversion
Click the Convert button on main interface, you can go to Conversion window to start AVI to Chromebook conversion.You can find conversion information on the window, such as Time elapsed, Time left, Generated size, and Estimated size. Ticking off Shut down computer after conversion option, you can leave the program running and do other things instead of waiting around for the conversion.
After the conversion, you can find your converted AVI video in the output directory, upload them to Google Drive and then make them available as offline files, or put them on a USB stick or an SD card that you insert into the Chromebook. Now, you can play the converted AVI files on your Chromebooks with the default media player with ease.
