Trouble with AVI Files

[frankpel]

I have downloaded a bunch of AVI files from winmx. I am having trouble with windows media player reading many of them. I get the error message file format is invalid. The file is listed as an AVI and it is complete. I do have divx installed. Win media player is ver 7. Any ideas? Frank

[booya]

well first of all i would get rid of the window media player 7 and install win mp 6.o1
reinstall divx codec and maybe u need some new codec like the divx 4 or divx 3.11 vki

but really u need 2 get rid of win media player 7 first of all

[frankpel]

where do i get win mp 6.01?

[samwichse]

Even if the file says it's complete from where it came from, remember that you're using a file sharing program and there's a good chance you downloaded someone else's incomplete download. That's what usually happens to me. Does it say "no combination of filters could be found to render the stream ?"

Ditto on getting rid of win mp 7... bloatware is the word.

Just select the version for windows 95. It's compatible with 98, 95 just doesn't support the 7.x series, so it's still availible.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/download/default.asp

[big_block_buick]

grab version.6.4 and divx 3.11...to be sure of dead files i use irfanview with all it's plugins... 1st i try 6.4, then 7.0 and lastly if irfanview wont play it's no good...

[muno]

Well.. The avi file might be encoded with smr, the divx codec cannot decode that stream.
You need to get the smr patch for divx for it to function. About ½ of the clips I have play with regular divx-codec, and the rest ½ with smr codec.
If the download is incomplete, you can try divxfix to correct the keying. If it doesn't work, you can try virtualdub to reconvert it. Open the file in virtualdub, select directstream copy for video and audio and save it. That should fix it.
-M