HELP Why can't I see avi? How do I get the codec?
 

Hi I really hope someone can help me. When I have downloaded a movie in avi I can never watch it... It always asks for the codec... But how do I get that codec? I downloaded DivX Player and DivX Movies as I read somewhere here in the forum, but it didn't help. I am looking very much forward to hear from you. Have a super weekend, ALEX!!!

2 suggestions. For codec identification get Get GSpot (click on link). For a backup player with in-built codecs get VLC - (click on link) _ (choose nearest mirror site) VLC saves you continually installing & updating your codecs. Not a pretty player but it does the job when needed. ;)

Same problem..
 

I'm having the same problem when trying to play a downloaded avi file. It will not play period (video nor audio) in windows media player or real player. I downloaded the player you suggested and it played but with no sound or video again (but this time it would actually attempt to play). So when I say play I mean the time bar moved like it does for normal movies, expect I didnt' see nor hear anything..

I run gspot and it says that this file is not a valid avi file. Does that mean that I've downloaded a bad file that just is not going to play?

I'm living overseas and dying to watch the fall premires!!

I've been wondering about codex and how I get some, too, but my downloaded movies from LW are all playing fine, but play best on my Windows Media Player. Come to think of it, my RealPlayer shows that sound is working, but I still can't hear it and can't see it at all. Could it be a resource issue? I have WinXP Home running with 256 ram and lots of free harddrive space. I've also gotten the invalid file message and the file played just fine, so go figure....

But if anyone is listening, I have some questions, too, about just what all the letters mean, like wmv, avi, srt, and mpg mean. When I talked with a friend about my avi downloads, (that's what I've been selecting) he said that he was amazed I got a picture, said the avi is the sound portion of movies or some such thing.
I've tried to look up the definitions of the movie extensions, but come up blank everytime in any help files I go to.
Another question is the time that some folks put in the info of their files to share. I always pick the biggest files in hopes of getting the full movie and it sure looks like the full movie when watched. But the info says for a 700 meg file that it's 59 minutes long. That's not long enough for a complete movies. So what am I getting? An edited version? Does the sharer cut them down, or do the programs do it for you? And how do they get squeezed from a 2 gig movie to what we can download? I have DVDShrink, but I don't know what it does really. And I haven't figured out how to use it either. The movies I shrink seem to come out as long as they were to begin with, unless they were longer than 2 gigs to begin with.
Any help on this would be wonderful. Maybe if I understood what was happening better, I could get my copies on the computer to share. So far, I think 2 gigs is too big to share. I wonder what extension they have once DVDShrink has shrunk them? Oh, help! Anyone! Thanks.

Yeah i have that problem too with...cough cough...a certain season premiere.
It's not like i'm a complete novice either so please don't think i maybe unclear about the existence of DivX codecs or the player or that i havent tried downloading VLC player as suggested.
Despite having spent an entire sunday looking for the codec required to play it, I have not been successful in finding one which has had any effect.
G-spot names the codec needed to be
'Motion JPEG including Huffman Tables' yet tells me i have codecs installed which claim to be able to procces this format.
All websites i checked gave me links only to the IBM site which didnt enable me to download it either.
Basically i have tried every player and every codec package i've been able to find. I have also tried downloading different versions of these videos but none of them seem to work. HELP!

So did you actually try using VLC to play the trouble-some file?

yes i tried using the vlc program you suggested but it was the same as using real player or divX.... 1h 49min of blank instead of 42 min of a video.
if it helps sometimes it displays something like what youd get on a very old TV with no channels.... basically stripes of different colour, if you know what i mean

Sounds like it's been encoded with a very poor or old encoder. Either way, if even VLC can't play it then if no other program plays it, I personally would trash it. Have you tried to see if your Nero or Roxio burner program can convert it?

yeah...i forget what its called... 'dub' something or another.
didnt work... gave me a 12 MB file of blankness too.
i don't get how it can be an encoding problem tho... because there was tons of different version of the same video out there, all with the same problem.
I think i've tried all the more or less common versions and if i try downloading a video with only 3 ppl sharing it, it will take me a month.
I just reckon that if it was an unreadble file why hasnt every1 else trashed it?

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