I seem to have lost the ability to play AVI's and selected MPG's in ANY player. Have tried Media Player, Real Plyer, Quicktime, Divx....all that I could find. Thought it was a codec problem but installed all that I could find from DIvx website. When I try to play the file, I get a "Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The file is either corrupt or the Player does not support the format you are trying to play." error. I've checked and it is chaecked as a supported media type. I'm at my wits end. HELP!!! BTW....I'm using XP Pro and Media Player 9.
Here's what worked for me. First I removed all the codecs I could find with "add/remove programs" in the control panel. Then I used a program called "big fix" to help correct any remaining codecs. Here is a link: http://www.btinternet.com/~digital56k/BigFix1.6b.exe Then I installed a codec pack I trusted that included all the codecs I needed, and a decent install program. I chose the K-Lite basic codec pack, found here: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_Lite_Codec_Pack.htm I hope this helps.
For a complete listing of almost every codec required to watch a movie and the order to install them in... pay a visit to http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/48608
use the windows media player 7.x or higher, its the first one with avi capabilities, when you combine it with the k-lite codec pack, it can play.
Or if you are like me and generally hate codec packs u can get AviCodec or GSpot from the software section of this site and find out exactly what codecs are needed to play these files! However since u said its all files, this might not be the best option but AviCodec and GSpot are 2 programs that seriously should be in everyone's collection of proggy's!
I've found player which can open .AVI beside "Windows Media Player" (but "Media Player" will open .AVI) its ViPlay! (1Mb only and it's free!!) Try: http://www.urusoft.net/downloads.php?lang=1 P.S. Also Total Commander 6.01 will open .AVI by "View" command!
dude uninstall every media player that you have including window media player and dvd players. now install VLC media player its most comprehensive media player out there. the best thing is it does not install anything on your computer registery or anything so its completely harmless. after you done installing it you gonna have to right click and associate the file to VLC and see if it plays or not. if its anything codec related then its gonna play nomatter what if it is something else well then i have no idea how to solve it. VLC is a very basic player. the great thing about it is it doesnt crash the computer.I ve been using it for two years now and it never crashed my computer.
Had the same problem with the same software config - one day WMP could play avi's fine and the next I recieved the same error message that the file type was not supported. Tried downloading all the major codec packs and testing with tools such as G Spots Codec Information ( which confirmed that i had the correct codecs for the avi file) and then also downloaded other avi players, but no success. Eventually downloaded the latest Directx version from microsoft which solved the problem: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.aspx?url=/windows/directx/downloads/default.htm
