Vista, AVI and DivX

I have been running Vista on my ultraportable laptop. And I really am enjoying the computing experience. The ThinkPad X60 is a great little machine.

I will be travelling to London, England on Saturday and I have been cutting some DVDs for the trip as the ultraportable does not include a DVD-drive. I use Handbrake on the Mac to cut AVIs from the DVDs. In this case, I have been cutting the last half of 24 season 1.

And the AVIs play back fine on the Mac. On Windows XP. On my Epson P3000. But not on Vista using Windows Media Player, or Quicktime, or a couple of other players that I tried. Codec issue on Vista.

A fairly well known issue. I was surprised that my AVI files needed the DivX codec for playback. I learned more about the compatibility issue with Vista and DivX here. DivX has no date for the Vista codecs. The resolution is to download the XviD codec here.

A quick and easy install and the AVIs now play without issue on the Vista platform.