Having a bit of trouble with .avi files

[DabboB]

I don't know whether .avi files are prone to corruption or if there's just something wrong with my computer, but I've having great trouble making them play right. I'm using Windows Media Player (could this be the problem?) and either they don't play at all, and instead an error is displayed reading "Windows Media Player encountered a problem while playing the file. For additional assistance, click Web Help." (the link doesn't help), or a little message appears in the bottom left of the window where the title normally displays if a video is playing correctly saying "Codec required" ... "Acquiring codec"... "Codec acquired", and then it plays the sound but not the image, just swirling visualisations. Can anyone help me figure out what's going on?

 

[rotary]

Some video players require codecs in order to play certain types of media files.

Install the k-lite codec pack and you'll most likely be able to play your movie.

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_Lite_Codec_Pack.htm

 

[DabboB]

Thank you both for your quick and helpful replies. I've installed K-Lite and it seems to have helped

 

[provenlogic]

Answerbot: This question has now been answered by JUB techies 647 times in the last 2 weeks.

 

[DabboB]

Isn't that nice. Maybe you should make it a sticky.

 

[teh_nathan]

As everyone else has said, you have to download codecs. The AVI format is just a container - the video inside can be of any format. Windows (or Mac) doesn't include these codecs.

 

[teh_nathan]

K-Lite is not malicious (and the assumption that every codec pack is malicious is a bit silly, if you ask me). How can I say that? Because I have it installed and I've been using it for years. If anything were to happen to my computer, it would've happened by now. Nope, my computer hasn't blown up yet, there's no spyware, my antivirus hasn't complained at anything for years. I have no reason to lie.

No, WMP absolutely CANNOT play every format of media. We're not lying. It's true that sometimes WMP can't find the right codec. Codecs like DivX and XviD don't come with WMP (though DivX might). If you insist that they do, really they don't. Remember that some codecs are open-source, some are not.

VLC player is actually pretty good. It plays anything regardless of codec because it has its own codecs and doesn't install any.

 

[teh_nathan]

Nobody said you were ignorant. But from experience, WMP is a piece of crap. Now others might jump on me for saying this but other players like BSplayer and VLC have more options. In fact, I swear by both.

There are a ton players for Windows, yes. Yes, it's a bit overwhelming to the average novice computer user, but we all have our own preferences. I wouldn't touch anything Microsoft unless I absolutely had to (I use Windows, well..things are too easy to do with Windows, I'll switch eventually; I DO NOT use MS Office, I use OpenOffice; I DO NOT use Microsoft Outlook Express, I use Thunderbird; I DO NOT use Internet Explorer, I use Firefox; I don't use Windows Media Player - version 11 is a bloated piece of junk, I use BSplayer or VLC depending on my needs and Winamp for music, etc)

K-Lite Codec Pack has something called G-Spot Codec Information (yes the name is kind of dodgy) that tells you what codec a particular file is using. If you want to know what codecs you need to play a file, you'd use this - or download it seperately here.

Take it from someone who spends upwards of 40 hours/week on the PC. If you have any questions, find me via PM.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

I pretty much only use WMP, occasionally i use the DivX player. When i encounter a file i can't play i go to the k-lite page and download the most recent package and everything is usually ok. if you were just playing the files a few weeks ago and now can't something else has happened and it's not necessarily a codec issue. although your codec package might have gotten corrupted or something. it could be that windows did an automatic download of some sorta and that has messed up your ability to play files.

folks here might be able to provide some sort of consensus on what maybe the top 3-5 most versatile players are and you could maybe have those installed and then use them as you need them. like i said, i don't generally need anything other than WMP. i was having a great deal of trouble a couple weeks ago. streaming vids on the web that were working suddenly stopped working. it turns out that i had a messed up active x plugin. i tried reinstalling it, but that didn't help. in the end i had to upgrade to WMP 10 (i had 9, which i loved). i don't recommend upgrading to version 11, but you might take a glance at what version you have and maybe upgrade to 10 if you have version 9. maybe something in the files of WMP got corrupted.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

hey BBT,

it never hurts to explain where you're coming from in my opinion. some of us tend to take for granted certain steps and sometime we over look stuff that someone without the same background doesn't understand. it's all good.

 

[provenlogic]

Just to offer a counter to nathan's dislike of WMP, WMP is my primary video player. As long as you take the time to install a codec pack when you install windows (or whenever) you really shouldn't have any problems playing legitimit video files. You can run into some problems with dodgy porn vids that have missing indexes and what not, in which case VLC player works wonders. But as long as you know what you're doing, and don't expect WMP to do something it wasn't designed to do, it works fine. And i too am an advanced computer user like Nathan, hell i design PC games for a living . But like Nathan said, it's all about personal preferences and skill level. I like WMP, he doesn't. It's up to you to decide what works best for you.