Error Message When You Try to Play an .avi File with Windows Media Player (279242)
The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Windows Media Player 9 Series for Windows XP
- Microsoft Windows Media Player for Windows XP Home Edition
- Microsoft Windows Media Player for Windows XP Professional
- Microsoft Windows Media Player 7.1
- Microsoft Windows Media Player 6.4
- Microsoft Windows Media Player 7
- Microsoft Windows Media Player 9 Series for Windows 2000
- Microsoft Windows Media Player 9 Series for Windows 98 Second Edition
- Microsoft Windows Media Player 9 Series for Windows Millennium Edition
This article was previously published under Q279242 SYMPTOMS When you use Windows Media Player and you try to play an
.avi file, you may receive any of the following error messages:
Invalid File Format Error=8004022F Cannot play back the file. The format is
not supported. Error=80040265 Cannot play back the video stream: no
suitable decompressor could be found. Error=80040255 No combination of filters could be found to
render the stream. Error=80040218 The source filter for this file could not
be loaded. Error=80040241 Windows Media Player cannot open filename.
You may need to reboot to complete installation of a downloaded component.
Please verify that the path and filename are correct and try again.
Error=80004005 One or more codecs required to open this
content could not be found. Error=C00D10D1 The following error
messages typically display the Four Character Code (FourCC) identification in
the error message: Video not available, cannot find
'VIDS:xxxx' decompressor. Unable to download an appropriate
decompressor Error=80040200 CAUSE This behavior can occur if the .avi was created by using a
codec that was not installed on the host computer and the codec is not
available on an update site. this behavior can also occur because the file
encoding for the .avi file is unsupported. RESOLUTION To resolve this behavior when you cannot play the .avi file
or if the error message does not display the FourCC identification, use either
the Mplayer.exe (for Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows 98, or Microsoft
Windows Millennium Edition [Me]) or Mplay32.exe (for Microsoft Windows NT 4.0,
Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows XP) program to determine the FourCC
identification that represents the codec that you need to play the file:
- Click Start, point to Run, type mplayer.exe in the Open box, and then press ENTER.
- Click Open on the File menu, locate the .avi file that you want to play, and then drag
the file to Windows Media Player.
- When you receive the error message that specifies the
FourCC identification, note that FourCC identification. For example, if you are
using a VCR2 codec from ATI, "vids:vcr2" is the FourCC
identification.
NOTE: The FourCC identification that you receive may be in the
vidc.iv50 format. If the FourCC identification displays "vidc" in the
identification, the file contains video. The last four characters in the FourCC
vidc identification specify the codec that you need to play the file.
You must obtain the codec that you need to play the .avi file from the
appropriate manufacturer. Note that not all manufacturers provide their codecs
for you to download. WORKAROUND To work around this behavior, you can convert the file to a
different format by using an encoder program.
| Modification Type: | Major | Last Reviewed: | 9/15/2003 |
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| Keywords: | kbfile kbprb KB279242 |
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