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Hi all, i have the windows media player 10, everythings up to date, i
downloaded a small film last night to watch, but when i tried to play it, i
got the message that i didn't have the correct codecs to play the film, the
file itself was an AVI...I had the sound but no picturer. Can someone please
explain to me what i need to do to enable me to watch the film......Thxs for
your time

"stu" <> wrote in message
news:41ecd414$0$44093$ i.nl...
> Hi all, i have the windows media player 10, everythings up to date, i
> downloaded a small film last night to watch, but when i tried to play
it, i
> got the message that i didn't have the correct codecs to play the film,
the
> file itself was an AVI...I had the sound but no picturer. Can someone
please
> explain to me what i need to do to enable me to watch the film......Thxs
for
> your time
>
>

http://msmvps.com/chrisl/articles/10453.aspx

--
Ian.

"stu" wrote
> Hi all, i have the windows media player 10, everythings up to date, i
> downloaded a small film last night to watch, but when i tried to play it, i
> got the message that i didn't have the correct codecs to play the film, the
> file itself was an AVI...I had the sound but no picturer. Can someone please
> explain to me what i need to do to enable me to watch the film......Thxs for
> your time

AVI files are Microsoft's invention (Audio Video Interleaving).
Raw AVI files are so HUGE that the video portion must be
COMPRESSED; so, all AVI files you will encounter will have
been compressed using one of many available codecs (short
for COmpresser-DECompressor). Your Windows Media Player
(or other players) cannot play the video portion of an AVI
if the particular codec used to make the AVI has not
been installed on your computer. Remember the opposite:
If you download an AVI and the video plays, you must have
*already* installed the necessary codec.

To know what codec you are missing at any given time, download
GSpot, a nifty free program that will tell you. (Drag the AVI in
question into GSpot, and let it analyze it against your system.)
http://www.headbands.com/gspot/download.html

Once you know the codec, you can do a Google search to
see where you can get it.

That's for the excellent imformation..
"gangle" <> wrote in message
news:IpSdnTri_uWha3HcRVn-...
> "stu" wrote
>> Hi all, i have the windows media player 10, everythings up to date, i
>> downloaded a small film last night to watch, but when i tried to play it,
>> i
>> got the message that i didn't have the correct codecs to play the film,
>> the
>> file itself was an AVI...I had the sound but no picturer. Can someone
>> please
>> explain to me what i need to do to enable me to watch the film......Thxs
>> for
>> your time
>
> AVI files are Microsoft's invention (Audio Video Interleaving).
> Raw AVI files are so HUGE that the video portion must be
> COMPRESSED; so, all AVI files you will encounter will have
> been compressed using one of many available codecs (short
> for COmpresser-DECompressor). Your Windows Media Player
> (or other players) cannot play the video portion of an AVI
> if the particular codec used to make the AVI has not
> been installed on your computer. Remember the opposite:
> If you download an AVI and the video plays, you must have
> *already* installed the necessary codec.
>
> To know what codec you are missing at any given time, download
> GSpot, a nifty free program that will tell you. (Drag the AVI in
> question into GSpot, and let it analyze it against your system.)
> http://www.headbands.com/gspot/download.html
>
> Once you know the codec, you can do a Google search to
> see where you can get it.
>
>

It could be a divx avi file. You will need the divx codec in order to see
it. You can get it here:

http://www.divx.com/


"stu" <> wrote in message
news:41ecd414$0$44093$ i.nl...
> Hi all, i have the windows media player 10, everythings up to date, i
> downloaded a small film last night to watch, but when i tried to play it,
> i got the message that i didn't have the correct codecs to play the film,
> the file itself was an AVI...I had the sound but no picturer. Can someone
> please explain to me what i need to do to enable me to watch the
> film......Thxs for your time
>