Posted: 1/31/2007 6:38:04 PM EDT
| what exactly does this format mean? what software will enable viewing of this.. anyone have any idea?? |
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"*.avi" is just a generic Windows video format, that allows compressing with different codecs. A "codec" is a compression scheme. DivX is one such compression scheme. Different companies make these schemes, and sell/make money off them various ways. Or at least, they try to. An .avi that uses no compression scheme can be played by just about any video-player program. If the video is encoded, you will need the codec [that was used when the video was compressed] installed in order to replay the video (the codec tells the computer how to de-compress the video stream). You can visit the www.doom9.org website to get popular codecs. Note that some codecs that will install spyware on your PC,,, but there are ways to disable the spyware while still using the codec (DivX used to be one that installed spyware, as a matter of fact--I dunno if it still does). ....So do not come back bitching because some codecs installed spyware on your computer, because it's commonly known that some do, but they can be "fixed". ;) If you download a codec pack, READ all the instructions first! ~ |