Ok this is wierd, I have alot of movies on my HDs. I have three dvd rips that I downloaded that when I try to play them it says cannot play this type of file (they are avi's) but also when i try to play them, look at the properties etc they cause explorer.exe to suck up 99% of the cpu and I have to end task on explorer.exe to get rid of it. WTF?

They could be DivX movies. Also, are you using the new Windows Media Player? Sometimes I find that it will not play them, and that the old Media player works. It's kind of weird but the old one works better sometimes. Also if you don't have DivX, you should/need to go download it. I tihnk you can get it at download.com and just search for DivX.

Good Luck.

not sure but it could be....
this is assuming you got the divx codec installed

the 'explorer sucking 99% cpu' thing could be because it's busy scanning the .AVI file.. which usually means it's lacking the avi index... that is.. broken AVI file... (not unusal when getting from the net)...

with this, mediaplayer (either version) can't play it...

easy fix is to download a little program called DIVFIX.. can't remember where i got it but im sure it's not hard to find from a good searchengine.

it scans the avi file and makes a new index for it... which usally makes it fully playable...

worth a try....

I had a similar problem with WM9 and AVI files. YOu can view them by first opening WMP and then opening it manually.

;( :x

If they are DVD rips then there is a 99% chance they will be divx, just go to www.divx.com and download the most basic/standard version and install it.

Media player will then play them correctly

they are AVI

user powerDVD or WINdvd to play them (POwerDVD is better to me)

or get the DivX 5.0 player / coder (www.divx.com) or the Krystal 4.33 codecs (ones i use for all AVI's)

medi player suxs for any video play back in my opinion.