Hi

I'm new to this forum but if you can help then great! I can't play an AVI video in either realplayer or windows media player. Can I convert it somehow or is there any other way to play it? I'm a bit of a ludite but I do try!! Thanks, Melanie

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ - free video player, plays pretty much anything. I love it.

:thumbsup:

Thanks Obrey, I'll try that. Do you know if it's safe (and would it work!) if I downloaded a codec from Xvid.org? That's what came up in Windows Media Player?? thanks again, Melanie

You should be fine to download from Xvid.org, though I'd still recommend downloading and trying VLC to see if you prefer it - it comes with all the codecs it needs installed so you shouldn't need to download anything else.

Thanks Obrey, I'll try that. Do you know if it's safe (and would it work!) if I downloaded a codec from Xvid.org? That's what came up in Windows Media Player?? thanks again, Melanie

Yes for some AVI files you need the Xvid codec,

Download and install the Divx player (This will have the Xvid codec inlcluded)

http://www.divx.com/en/products/software/windows/divx

PS you don't need to use the Divx player, once installed you can use Windows Media player or VLC etc to play yor AVI file.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ - free video player, plays pretty much anything. I love it.

:thumbsup:

Great player that! I've never come across anything that it won't play!

k lite mega codecs pack
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/k_lite_Mega_codec_pack.htm

more codecs than you can shake a stick at...youll barely ever need another one.
also lets you play real player/quicktime files without needing their players too.
also includes a good player media player classic.....the player i use most.

in my experience windows media player barely ever finds the correct codec it needs even when it goes looking for one online...crap

VLC everytime for me too.
It's recently had a bit of a re-vamp and to be honest, it blows Windows Media Player out of the water.
Its only a 15.56MB free download , and available for pretty much every operating system out there.
Easy to use for the novice, yet packed with features and options for the more technically minded.
From their site:
"VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network."

On a side-note, for those of you who use Real Player or Quicktime, and for one reason or another don't like VLC, try Real Alternative (http://www.filehippo.com/download_real_alternative/) or QuickTime Alternative (http://www.filehippo.com/download_quicktime_alternative/)
Both are free and less than half the size of the regular versions, meaning you can watch your media without having to install all the crap you don't need.:thumbsup:

Avoid codec packs, they usually just end up messing your system up.

FFdshow (http://www.free-codecs.com/download/FFDshow.htm) is all you should need. It will allow you to play just about any video file format using windows media player, like Xvid, mpeg2 and H.264, and audio formats like DTS, AAC and AC3.

Just use the settings to tell it what you want it to handle.