# windows media player cannot play .avi files



## jin1991 (Aug 11, 2007)

im running windows media player 11 version 11.0.5721.5230 and im having the problem that i cant play .avi files with this player but i can with other players. 

when i try to open avi file i get the error: (quote)

"Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file."

with the options of "close" and "web help"

so far i have tried troubleshooting this problem by visiting the microsoft support site and i have found that i can run .avi files using mplay32.exe, although wen i play it it plays only images of the actual video and doesnt include sound, im guessing that is the purpose of this exe file. 

any help would be much appreicated


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## tecknomage (Jan 24, 2008)

BOY! This problem sounds familiar. Now if I can get my old brain to remember the fix........

What version of *DirectX* are you running?

I think the fix is loading the very latest *DirectX* (NOT 10 unless you're running Vista).

Did you reload the Codex options for MP 11? It may be you are still running an earlier Codex that is not compatible with MP 11.


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## elf (Jul 19, 2002)

This is typically not a problem with DirectX, but rather with the codecs that WMP uses. There are multiple different codecs available, which is why it becomes tricky. 

DivX and XviD are the two most common AVI codecs, which can be downloaded seperately. I believe there are also packages out there that combine multiple codecs into a single package, but I cannot verify how well they work.


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## Dunedin (Jul 19, 2007)

Hello jin1991 :smile:

K-Lite has all you need and usually fixes your problem.

Download it here


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## bobjenkins777 (Apr 25, 2008)

To play AVI files I use VLC media player. Its really good, I dont care for windows media player.

The vlc can even play files that aren't all the way downloaded

just search on google for vlc if you want to look into it


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## jin1991 (Aug 11, 2007)

hi thanx for the replys all, well ive got both xvid and divx codecs and downloaded the k-lite patch. it has seemed to improve as i can know here the sound of the video but not the picture yet.

i personally believe this has been caused by a program called easy cleaner which was ran on my pc a long time ago which has caused many errors with the registry key. while installing k-lite i experienced this (quote):

"c:\\programfiles\k-litecodecpack\filters\L3codecx.ax
unable to register the DLL/OCX
:RegSvr32 failed with the exit code 0x5"

i believe i also found away to solve this problem as if i click on the small red x of the file playing i can go to web help to get the missing codec but, this also doesn't seem to do me any good as windows media player doesn't seem to open any browser.

i believe this might be explained through the fact that my default browser now is firefox as i had many problems with explorer and media player may not function with firefox correctly, due to the reg mess up by easy cleaner.

if u guys know a way i could get windows media player to open up a webpage or to find out the http link that the 'web help' is hyperlinking to so i can enter in the browser myself.

in addition lool, is there a program that would allow me to see if there is any damaged registry keys, ir would u guy recommend installing the windows XP SP3 to try and solve the reg issue iv been having recently. 

thankz n pce


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## mommabear (Apr 5, 2008)

FWIW, I've still got WMP9 installed, but I never use it. I've been able to play .avi's since Day One. 

I use the XP Codec Pack which has Media Player Classic in it. MPC is my default player. I went into WMP to make sure all the file options were unchecked. Sometimes WMP still had a few checked even though I clicked on all files in MPC. While I was there I also unchecked everything about auto checking for updates, etc.

I still had some problems streaming videos from sites like CNN and MSNBC, both in FF and IE, so I found the All-in-one Codec Pack 6.0.3.0 and installed it.

Maybe an occasional QT or Realtime file gives me problems; but where I run across them, there's usually a WMP alternate which plays fine in Classic.


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## asimow (Oct 15, 2008)

jin1991 said:


> im running windows media player 11 version 11.0.5721.5230 and im having the problem that i cant play .avi files with this player but i can with other players.
> 
> when i try to open avi file i get the error: (quote)
> 
> ...


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## Minka666 (Aug 20, 2009)

I am having the same issues, but the xvid, dvix, and k-lite didn't work. I had them installed previously so I uninstalled & reinstalled them. I get the audio, but no video, even using Media player classic.
I've never had an issue like this before that a codec couldn;t fix. any ideas?


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## deleted010511 (Apr 29, 2009)

Skip WiMP and use VLC.


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## Minka666 (Aug 20, 2009)

Still didn't work. I have audio, but no video.
It's weird, and only the .avi's. I cannot see the video in WMP, VLC, or MPC, I just hear the audio. When I load the AVI into TMPGEnc I can see the video, frame for frame. Something is messed up somewhere...
A workaround would be nice for now, but I'd like to solve the problem so I can see video in web browsers and such...


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## blah789 (Aug 25, 2008)

I wish you'd started your own thread instead of reviving one from last year.
You should try a diagnostic utility on the files you can't play:
http://www.headbands.com/gspot
Does it say anything like corrupt AVI header? What's the fourcc of the video? Try playing the video in VirtualDub (I know it's an editor, but it's pretty good at parsing damaged AVI's). http://www.virtualdub.org


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