# I need help! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 22, 2002, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help/120300 "2002-07-22T23:59:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Loneraven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c0e974/32.png) [@Loneraven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loneraven)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help/120300/1 "2002-07-22T23:59:11Z")
I’m downloading media files with Getright (naughty, naughty!) and I’ve just downloaded one with an .avi extension. What program should I use to run it? Realplayer won’t accept it, neither will QuickTime, and the Windows Media Player doesn’t seem to support it. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help/120300/2 "2002-07-23T00:34:23Z")
Stop downloading porn and go for a walk? ---
**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 23, 2002, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help/120300/3 "2002-07-23T05:56:23Z")
.avi’s are supported by by all three of the progs you mention. There are two possibilities: 1. You don’t have the right codec installed. Right-click the file, click on the Details tab and note the audio and video formats. Then try [this site](http://www.divx-digest.com/software/index.html#codecs) and see if the format is listed there. Or post here what the formats are and perhaps someone will know where to find it. 2. It’s a corrupt or broken media file. Discard and try again. or There are tools listed on the same page as the link above that you can use to try to repair the file. Good luck in that dept. It’s also possible that this is not really an .avi file. It could be an MPEG1 or MPEG2 or possibly even a ZIPped file. ---
**Author:** ![Loneraven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c0e974/32.png) [@Loneraven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loneraven)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help/120300/4 "2002-07-23T11:21:30Z")
Thanks Horseflesh - will go and try all of that. Giraffe - it’s not porn. Would I do that? It’s Stargate - _grin_ ---
**Author:** ![blinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@blinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinx)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help/120300/5 "2002-07-23T13:02:41Z")
it’s proberly encoded with divx - and you need a divx codec to view it - google a bit and you should find it ---
**Author:** ![Loneraven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c0e974/32.png) [@Loneraven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loneraven)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help/120300/6 "2002-07-23T19:42:01Z")
I’ve downloaded the codec - what do I do now? ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2002, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help/120300/7 "2002-07-23T23:37:16Z")
Um, stop asking questions about how to download copyrighted material on a message board that frowns very strongly on that sort of thing? Or, download porn instead? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help/120300/8 "2002-07-24T00:37:22Z")
You want info on how to download copyrighted material? Go somewhere else. Lockdown.