What codec is required to import .AVI files into Windows Movie Maker and where can I download said codec?

Question

Every time I try to import my .AVI files to make a music video it says that the required codec is not installed on my computer. I set my computer to download them automatically and the error message still pops up. Can anyone help me?

Answer 1

It's been a while since I've used Windows Movie Maker, but I'll try to help. First I would suggest getting a bunch of codecs from the Combined Community Codec Project: http://www.cccp-project.net/ Download and install their codec, and then see if it will work.

You will pretty much have every codec you could possibly need. If this doesn't work, you may not be able to bring that file into WMM without re-encoding it.

From Microsoft: Although you can play a file in Microsoft Windows Media Player, you may not be able to import the file into Windows Movie Maker even though this article lists that kind of file. You may not be able to import the file if the codec that was used to encode the audio or video is not a codec that is included with Windows XP. In that case, you may be able to re-encode the video or audio by using Windows Media Encoder, and then import the video or audio.

I would suggest downloading Windows Media Encoder and trying to then re-encode it to wmv which it would certainly be able to handle.