Windows media player...

[Loosehead]

I'm having trouble playing an AVI file. As it's loading I get a message saying "Error downloading codec" then it plays the file anyway but only the sound comes out the picture is just a lot of swirling colour. Any ideas? The help just tells me what I already know and It doesn't tell me what codec I actually need. Any experts out there help it's W98 SE, thanks

[southerngirl]

Loosehead, I haven't got the answer, but strangely, my Windows Media player is now telling me it is not installed correctly - it has worked perfectly OK up to two or three days ago. Could it be a generic problem with Windows Media?

[BillyNoMates]

Windows Media Player is not the best at finding the necesary codecs.

Worth downloading a free codec pack such as this;

http://www.codecguide.com/

Seems to work OK. There's a choice of Mega-Pack or a Lite version on the downloads list to the left of the webpage.

[vehelpfulguy]

Some AVI files are DivX files.

Try searching in Google for AVI player or DivX player.

The VLC player is good. Get it from here:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Or try a DivX player here

http://www.divx.com/divx/windows/

Or IrfanView is another AVI player.

http://www.irfanview.com/

[fo3nix]

videoLan all the way, as previously suggested by vehelpfulguy too. However, it's not officially supported on 98, but they say it may indeed work.

See the information here if it doesn't:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.h tml

[Loosehead]

OK thanks everyone