avi won't play!

[surefire]

I have an avi file that won't play on my laptop. I've tried playing the file in just about every player that I could get my hands on including: RealOne, (cannot play the file) media 9, (format not supported) WinDVD (no valid disk/drive found) etc. However, it will play on my friends laptop. I tried running G-spot and it reports that the codec is not installed and the render operation fails. On my friends Laptop he gets the same message that the codec is not installed but the render operation is successful I tried copying the file onto my HD and running it from there just in case it was the CD playing up but the same thing happened. I have also tried installing the same codec packs as on my friends laptop with no success.

Any ideas peeps?

OS: Win XP pro

[Prospero424]

What I would do in this situation is simply install or reinstall the codec reported by Gspot.

What codec was used? sometimes there are better options, so let me know ASAP.



Prospero

[surefire]

This is the strange thing, when Gspot is run it reports that there is no codec installed on both laptops. The video codec field says "codec not installed" it plays on my friends laptop but not mine. Weird eh?

[theDruid]

what does gSpot report as the FourCC (4CC) for the codec the file requires?

(e.g. DivX, Xvid, Div3 etc..)

see a list of FourCC codes here - site uses frames unfortunately, so it's hard to deep link, but you'll find the main list if you click on 'Codecs'.

If gSpot says the codec isn't installed, you probably need to find out what it is (see FourCC) and install it!

cheers,
mcdruid.

P.S. I'm not an expert on this - but the difference between your machine, and your mate's laptop may be the version of DirectX you have - as gSpot tries to render the file with DirectShow, which sometimes works without the exact codec being present.

[spectroelectro]

I just had a problem like yours today. Here's how I solved it:
[1] Open the offending AVI file (which won't play on ANYTHING I've got but was rendered from Adobe PRemiere as a standard Type 2 AVI) in TMPGEnc. Select FILE -> SAVE AS -> AVI.
[2] Chosoe the filename. Save it. Yeah, it still won't play -- but hang in there, the next step fixes that.
[3] Open the resulting AVI file with VitualdubMod and now chosoe svae as huffyuv. (You HAVE downloaded the free huffyuv codec, haven't you?)
I was then able to open the offending AVI file with any program, play it, encode it, blah blah woof woof.
---
What happened?
I was fiddling and diddling with sliding around the sound protion relative to the video portion of the AVI file. SOmething must have gotten out of whack and the resulting AVi became nonstandard enough not to play on anything my system has (and I have got TONS of codecs) but not so badly that MTPGenc wouldn't open it.
If all else fails, trying the following bizarre machination which has also worked for me:
Open the AVi file with the Conups DV file converter. SAVE AS to the same DV type. (type 2 if it's a 2, Type 1 if it's already a 1.) This often works!