# How to open this file........

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-open-this-file/119577>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 18, 2002, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-open-this-file/119577 "2002-07-18T08:17:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Nishroch\_Order](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Nishroch\_Order](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nishroch_Order)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-open-this-file/119577/1 "2002-07-18T08:17:12Z")

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I’ve got this file that has the extension.avi  
I tried using windows media player and quick time but both didn’t work…so how?

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**Author:** ![Horseflesh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horseflesh/32/7502_2.png) [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-open-this-file/119577/2 "2002-07-18T08:22:58Z")

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You probably don’t have the right codec installed. Right-click the file, choose Properties and then click on the Details tab. Write down the Audio Format and Video Format information and post it here and we can probably help.

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**Author:** ![EmbarrassingDad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/embarrassingdad/32/5441_2.png) [@EmbarrassingDad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmbarrassingDad)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-open-this-file/119577/3 "2002-07-18T08:24:42Z")

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WAG: [divx.com](http://divx.com)

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**Author:** ![ShadowWarrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7993a0/32.png) [@ShadowWarrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowWarrior)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-open-this-file/119577/4 "2002-07-18T08:25:07Z")

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It may be that you do not have the correct codec to open the file. Perhaps it is in DivX format(quite likely if you DLed it from a certain file-sharing service that I won’t mention here), in which case you need to go to [www.divx.com](http://www.divx.com) and install their stuff.

Failing that, it might just have the wrong extension… try changing it to mpg and see if that works (windows is amazingly stupid about these things)

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**Author:** ![ShadowWarrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7993a0/32.png) [@ShadowWarrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowWarrior)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-open-this-file/119577/5 "2002-07-18T08:26:10Z")

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yow! A triple sim-post. My very first 😃 😃  
At least everyone seems to agree with my diagnosis