Problem:
AVI files saved on Mac OS X 10.8.2 do not play in QuickTime.
Solution:
When saving an AVI file on a Mac the produced file will prove incompatible with QuickTime X. It has been found that QuickTime X does not support many codecs that previous versions used too. Thus the solution is to use another player. The article below is relevant to this issue and will discuss in greater detail this problem.
http://www.iskysoft.com/topic-snow-leopard/how-to-play-avi-with-quicktime-on-mac.html
AVI files have been found to work properly on Mac OS X 10.6.8. Furthermore on Mac OS X 10.7.5 it has been found that using the non-compressed option will not work whereas using the line preserving method does work properly. Also to note is that these same files that do not work in Mac OS X do in fact play on Windows.