# Why won't my computer play .avi files anymore? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 9, 2005, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-my-computer-play-avi-files-anymore/325377 "2005-10-09T04:07:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Grelby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a5b964/32.png) [@Grelby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grelby)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-my-computer-play-avi-files-anymore/325377/1 "2005-10-09T04:07:34Z")
My computer has been driving me absolutely NUTS lately. One of the biggest reasons for this is that NONE of my video-capable application will play .avi video files anymore. I have WinAmp, Quicktime Player and this funky other program called BS Player, and they have all gone from working fine a month or so ago to not working at all in the last few weeks. What gives? I’ve had a computer that didn’t play .avi because of a missing codec, but the weird thing here is that it worked fine before! And besides, that was back in the Dark Ages of Windows 98 SE. All the .avi files that worked perfectly, oh, six weeks ago now only play audio on every single one of my players. It’s clearly a system-wide problem, but I haven’t a clue what it could be. Any suggestions for what I could do to solve this are greatly appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-my-computer-play-avi-files-anymore/325377/2 "2005-10-09T05:15:12Z")
You’re probably missing the right DivX codec. “Probably” because a lot of codecs use the avi extension, but DivX is the most popular one. The simplest way to solve this problem is to use the [VLC media player](http://www.videolan.org/vlc/). ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-my-computer-play-avi-files-anymore/325377/3 "2005-10-09T06:48:52Z")
Yeah, VLC is a good media player. Another alternative is to go with [Media Player Classic](http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303&package_id=84358) and the [ffdshow](http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow) DirectShow/VFW codec library. That’s what i use, and will allow you to play just about anything. ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-my-computer-play-avi-files-anymore/325377/4 "2005-10-09T06:51:50Z")
Yeah, Media Player Classic and ffdshow are great together. It’s what I use too and definitely recommend if you’re willing to take the extra bit of effort to get it going. ---
**Author:** ![WonJohnSoup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f17d59/32.png) [@WonJohnSoup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WonJohnSoup)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-my-computer-play-avi-files-anymore/325377/5 "2005-10-09T07:58:44Z")
Did you uninstall a program that took out a lot of codecs along with it? That’s what happened to me awhile ago. I found this program called Gspot that will render a media file and tell you if your computer has the necessary codecs, and if not, how to get them. Pretty cool. [http://www.snabbstart.com/download/gspot-codec-information-appliance.aspx](http://www.snabbstart.com/download/gspot-codec-information-appliance.aspx) ---
**Author:** ![WonJohnSoup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f17d59/32.png) [@WonJohnSoup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WonJohnSoup)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-my-computer-play-avi-files-anymore/325377/6 "2005-10-09T08:01:17Z")
Whoops. Apparently that’s an old version. Here’s the newest I have [http://www.free-codecs.com/download/GSpot.htm](http://www.free-codecs.com/download/GSpot.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Grelby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a5b964/32.png) [@Grelby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grelby)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-my-computer-play-avi-files-anymore/325377/7 "2005-10-09T13:54:36Z")
Whoah! So many helpful responses! Thanks guys!