trouble playing .avi files

I recently downloaded a few .avi files of tv shows using BT and then when I have gone to play them using WMP it simply won't play the video however I still recieve audio. I think this has something to do with codecs which I know nothing about. In WMP at the bottom it tries to download the codec and then says "error downloading codec" so i figure it needs a certain codec, I don't know which one cos it doesn't indicate what codec or I don't know how to find out what codec it needs. To top that off I don't know how to find this codec.

So what do I do?


Thx in advance

Download a program called GSpot (use Google), and open the .avi file in GSpot. It will tell you what audio and video codecs the file uses, and if you have them or not. That way you can figure out which codec your missing, and then download it.

Or just download and install the K-Lite codec pack.

http://www.codecguide.com/

avi files can use a lot of different codecs, but MOST avi files use DivX and XviD. so you need to download and install DivX and XviD "DirectShow codecs." they are compatible with WMP, but Microsoft basically won't acknowledge them since they're competitors to MS's WMV codec.

while you're at it, you should prolly install AC3 and OGG audio codecs... you were hearing sound because the file prolly uses MP3 audio, but AC3 and OGG are the other two popular audio formats for movie files.

or just do what Jacker said and use an all-in-one codec pack.

I take it that the K-lite codec pack includes these "AC3" and "OGG"?

that reminds me I had downloaded a few albums and 2 of them had the .OGG extension and I couldn't find how to play them but they should work now.


Thanks guys. Big help.

Just out of curiosity,
do you have DivX installed?
Cus what 'Braniac' said is true, and in fact, nost of the TVRips that you find in bittorrent are encoded with DivX.
But I don't know why Im saying all this,
just do what Rip said, get the 'megacodecpack', or if you don't want all the other codecs that you might never use, try the DivX, Xvid and AC3 codecs first, to see if it fix it.

did I confused you,
cus Im totaly confused now.