Windows can bite me
March 15, 2009 3:59 PM   Subscribe

Why is windows media player acting like my .avi files are music files?

I just downloaded a video in .avi format, but when I try to play it, it acts like it's music and just displays that abstract video thing instead of the video I downloaded. I can hear the audio just fine, though! I tried to play it in Quicktime too and it didn't work at all, not sure why. But I have no reason to think I didn't download the entire thing correctly, it just isn't playing.

(I have no experience at all with this sort of thing at all, as you can probably tell.)
posted by showbiz_liz to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)
 
You don't have the right video codec. It's probably Xvid but it could be anything that isn't loaded by WMP by default.

Quicktime only plays a very select number of video formats and doesn't really load third-party codecs.

Get VLC. That'll play anything.
posted by valkyryn at 4:01 PM on March 15, 2009 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Oh, and it also displays a big honking music note in the lower right corner of the screen.
posted by showbiz_liz at 4:01 PM on March 15, 2009


Best answer: If you are using Windows XP, download XP Codec Pack. After installing that you should be able to play virtually any video file out there.
posted by thenuts at 4:04 PM on March 15, 2009 [2 favorites]


Seconding VLC. Plays anything you'll throw at it.
posted by ewingpatriarch at 4:06 PM on March 15, 2009


You probably don't have the right video codec. Try downloading and installing ffDshow.
posted by Good Brain at 4:08 PM on March 15, 2009


Response by poster: I did as thenuts suggested and it's working now, thanks everyone! I'll try these other things if it messes up again.
posted by showbiz_liz at 4:09 PM on March 15, 2009


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