avi files

i have windows 98.over the last month,i have proably downloaded 10 players at least or 502 bundle to watch avi files,but none of them will show video.a few of them will play the sound on an avi file,and some dont do anything at all.ive tried about every player i know,currently i have windows media 7,and VideoLAN .ive tried zoom player,bs player and many more,i dont need a player as much as just needing the correct codec or bundle,im at a loss as to why these files wont play,as ive downloaded the codecs and bundle many times,but still no luck.anyone have any ideas or solutions to this problem?thanks

 

thanks for the reply.i did read that article,and even downloaded a codec bundle from microsoft,but no sucess at all.ive even downloded another two players that are supposed to play avi files(as has every other player ive tried)and they wont play them.sometimes i can hear the audio,but never video.all other video files play fin.ecurrently i am using windows media player and zoom player,does anyone have any ideas to fix this,thanks

 

Sounds like a DIVX file. DIVX is a compressed file format that often uses a .avi extension, but is NOT .avi. You can get the codec for that here:
http://www.divx.com/divx/

It includes a player with it, but once the codec is installed, Media Player should be able to play it.

There are other unsupported codecs out there, Xvid and I don't know what else. If you've got an AVI file that won't play, it's generally been encoded with one of those other formats. Confuses things.

 

he said he has the 5.02 player from divx... try opening it with the player though, cause auto it will be set to wmp

 

I suggest three things:
1) try the Divx player
2) search Google for "codecs download" and give it an hour or so to read all the info
3) every time you cannot open a file message MicroSoft about changing the DOS file extension to a more modern system.