common win xp vid prob

hello fellow computer likers.
i know im not the only one with this question but anyway
with my win xp home when i get video files from the internet some when i try to play them the video is a visulaisation screen while i have sound, this never happend on my win 98 comp even with the exact same file, why does this happen with xp, and is there any way to fix, thanx, max

 

you'll need to get the video codec to decode the video part of the file. for example, if you download the videos from tom's hardware, you'll need to get the divx codec. some other websites use the xvid codec (found here: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4231). you just need to pick the right one.

 

thanx man