When is an .avi not an avi?

[doniel]

Someone please set me straight if there's a more appropriate forum for this question.

I've had a file on my hard drive for some time which has a filename extension of .avi, but which isn't an avi file.

GSpot reports in the Stat box (under File) that it's "Not a valid AVI File" and in the Type box, "Non-AVI File - Type Unknown."

Windows Media Player 10 displays, "Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file."

VLC media player, instead of expanding into a video screen, expands only a little to show the slider that indicates the progress being made in playing the file, and a line of information about the file below that. VLC "plays" the file, as indicated by the moving slider. However, there's no audio (and no video, as mentioned above), and it "plays" the file, which should run for at least 3/4 of an hour, in less than 2 minutes.

How can I determine what kind of file it really is, and what will play it?

Thanks!

[awesomeincalg]

I've had those on occasion myself, and I've found they're usually a corrupted file. You can try renaming them to .mpg or .mpeg or other formats and see if it plays, If not not, deleted it and forget it...It's toast!

[reboot]

When players choke like this, it's usually a renamed avi that's one of 3 things.
An RM, a QT, or a fake (possibly a trojan).

[doniel]

It's not RM (or Windows Media Player would have played it - I have Real Alternative installed), it's not QT (VLC plays QT files), and my up-to-date virus scanner doesn't detect any threat in the file.

Although I believe VLC would have ignored the .avi extension and played the file even if it were .mpg or another format, I tried renaming it, with the same results.

Sigh. I guess you're right about trashing it and forgetting about it.

Thank you both for trying to help.

[LT. Columbo]

sounds like a bogus file...get rid of it before it causes you more problems...

[doniel]

As already mentioned, it doesn't appear to be a virus or trojan.

Still, since I'm unable to view it, there's no point to keeping it.

Thanks for your concern and advice.

[LT. Columbo]

anytime...