# Playing .avi files **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 30, 2002, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-avi-files/106499 "2002-04-30T17:03:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Neil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/839c29/32.png) [@Neil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neil)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-avi-files/106499/1 "2002-04-30T17:03:15Z")
I’ve got some .avi files I’d like to play, but my Windows Media Player won’t play them. Is there something I could download to either play them, or convert them to mpegs? ---
**Author:** ![scotth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@scotth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotth)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-avi-files/106499/2 "2002-04-30T17:11:10Z")
It depends on the message you get when you try to play them. If it says something about a missing codec, then you probably can download something to help. If it says the file is corrupt, not an avi, or something along those lines, it probably isn’t a good file. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-avi-files/106499/3 "2002-04-30T19:05:51Z")
[duplicate thread"](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=112524) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-avi-files/106499/4 "2002-04-30T19:53:18Z")
Since this is a duplicate, I’ll close this one and thank **sailor** for providing a link to the other one. **DrMatrix** - General Questions Moderator