playing .avi files only showing black screen & no sound

Well, downloaded a few .avi files from kazaa lately and they've just not worked. The last six Ive downloaded havent worked, Ive tried them in Kazaa and Windows Media Player and powerdvd but they work in niether. They play, but its just a black screen and no sound. I use Kazaa lite if that makes any difference! I know it might be dodgy files but six in a row is quite a lot.

 

Most likely you just don't have the right codecs installed to play the avi's. Download the latest Divx codecs here.

You might also try renaming the extension from AVI to WMV. I've downloaded some videos recently that had MPEG and AVI extensions but didn't work until I renamed the extension to WMV.

 

Ive definetely got the right codecs, I just updated them before I posted this I even have some headbangs thing that checks if you have the right codecs. When I go to open it with DivX pro it just says cannot open file:....

 

Download GSpot here to find out what codec is used:
http://www.headbands.com/gspot/
Then, find and install the correct codec.

If the codec is XVid, then run this app to change the file header (put "DivX" in both boxes):
http://inmatrix.hoyty.com/mirror/avic100.zip

If that doesn't work, then download DivFix, strip the file's index, and then rebuild it:
http://divfix.maxeline.com/divfix1091.zip

If that doesn't work, try playing it with AviPreview:
http://www.avipreview.com/avipreview_by_aj/avipreview_by_andrei_jefremov_terms_of_use.htm

 

you could also try the Nimo pack:
http://nimo.titanesk.com/modules/news/