corel painter IX won't open .avi files

[talin]

i open corel painter IX(education edition), file>open, then browse for file but all .avi files are greyed out. i have them located in different places like on the the desk top and in the pictures folder.

i tried, file>new, picture type: movie with 10 frames. then movie>insert movie(at the start of movie) then browsed for the .avi file i wanted and it's greyed out.

.jpg files open fine.

i installed application yesterday on a powerbook 1.5 GHz PowerPC G4, OS 10.4.5, 768MB DDR SDRAM, purchased 12/31/05.

this is makin' me crazy! and i have searched the help files, the manual and online and cannot find any answers.

any help here would be GREATLY appreciated!

[Natobasso]

This pages says you can open Windows based avi files:
http://www.corel.com/painterix/produ..._features.html

[talin]

yep, that's the main reason i purchased it.

here is a cut and paste from the corel painter IX help files:
_______________________
To open a QuickTime or AVI movie
1 Choose File menu > Open.
2 In the Open (Mac OS) or Select Image (Windows) dialog box, locate the movie, and click Open.
_______________________
but for some reason all my avi files are greyed out

[Natobasso]

I wonder if the files are locked? Get info on an avi file and see if it's locked or its permissions are set to Read Only…

[talin]

okay, got info. "locked" is not checked and under ownership & permissions it has "you can read & write" chosen from the drop-down window. but under the details arrow it has "talin" (me)chosen as the owner from the drop-down - there are lots of options here, such as system, mailman, etc. i don't know what all these options are, but i tried changing the owner to "system" but it still wouldn't work.

[Mikuro]

This is a shot in the dark, since I've never used Painter, but...

It might be that your AVIs don't have their invisible four-character Mac type set. Before OS X, the Mac OS did not use file name extensions like it does now; it used invisible file type codes. Since Painter was originally made for OS 9, it's possible it still relies solely on these type codes. You can change these type codes with apps like FileType. The type code for AVI files should be "VfW " (note the capitalization and the trailing space).

Try giving your files this type code with FileType and see if Painter can recognize them then.

[talin]

didn't work - but i'm not sure i set it up right(i should probably mention that i'm a newbie) - here's what i did:
1)clicked the "edit list" button
2)clicked the add button
3)in the "add database entry" window;
name: test
creator: .AVI(in caps)
type: VfW (with trailing space)

i guessed on the creator entry - maybe i guessed wrong?

[Mikuro]

The creator doesn't matter, actually, so I must have been wrong. But if you're wondering, "TVOD" is a good choice (that's the creator code of QuickTime Player).

The only other idea I have is to open the avi in QuickTime Player and then save it as a mov, either self-contained or referenced. (I think you need QuickTime Pro to do that.) Maybe Painter would recognize it then. Does Painter recognize any other kinds of movies, like movs or mpegs?