xvid okay for progressive avi downloads?

Hi All, I have some xvid avi files that are sitting on a web site. Using Windows, I tried viewing the file as a progressive download using windows media player (wmp), vlc, and mplayer. Results: wmp: complained that it couldn't find a decompressor vld: audio, no video mplayer: perfect The problem is that I am building an app around video and I need the average, non-technical person to be able to use it. So I can only really rely on wmp for Windows users. I spent a few hours trying to find information about the why this doesn't seem to work and I found a few people pointing the finger at xvid and few others pointing the finger at the avi container. (I realize avi isn't an ideal progressive download format, but based on what I read, it should work.) Anyone have any ideas what the problem might be or how I could resolve it? Thanks, David

There have been countless discussions in this forum as to the most appropriate format which is universally playable by everyone without having to install anything extraneous and the answer is always MPEG-1. Forget everything else. To get the discussion threads on the above subjects, :search: and please don't open threads on already-much-discussed topics.

For progressive download there isnt (as long as you dont want to seek), although AVI is probably not the best choice either. If you want it to work on WMP i would look into asf if i were you.

@vlogger, From what you said "I need the average, non-technical person to be able to use it", suggested compatibility to me. I am sorry if you meant otherwise. I am not sure about why WMP is giving that error (assuming you do have the codec installed), but why not try and stream the AVI files? I found paper on it. Looks like a lot of work, but maybe it will help. Also, as Stephan said, I would also look into ASF and WMV formats to see if they would work for progressive downloads. AVI are not suitable for progressive downloads or streaming, because of seeking issues. But it can be circumvented as explained in that^^ paper.

@unskinnyboy -- thanks for the link. The paper is interesting. When I suggested the "average, non-technical person," I meant a Windows user with WMP as the only media player. @stephanV -- hmmm, so theoretically, it should work. Seeking is not particularly important to me right now. I think it will help if I put what I'm doing into context. Users of the service can upload their own videos. If they upload wmv, progressive downloads should work. However, it seems that the vast majority of video files are avi. Digital cameras and camcorders generate them. I'm considering writing a Windows Media Encoder app that transcodes avi to wmv, but the transcoding process is long and complex for my userbase. As for streaming, I have a custom-built backed distribution platform. It doesn't (and can't easily be modified) to support streaming, but I figured that would be less important with progressive downloads over broadband. So I am still confused why my xvid-encoded avis can't be viewed until they have been completely downloaded. Cheers, David

use WMV 

Since the index is at the end of AVIs as mentioned previously, they will never play until completely downloaded, or if they do play they will not be seekable. ASF/WMV was designed from the start to be streamable, and will play as soon as sufficient data is buffered. Make sure to have WMP10 installed, then install Windows Media Encoder 9, and use Advanced Profile. WMP and the IE plugin will auto-download the WMV9 codec if necessary directly from Microsoft's ActiveX plugin gallery. WMV is the most supported streaming format in the world (the player is built into every Windows installation).