I need help encoding

[OTKIDD]

I am new to this so please bear with me. I downloaded the newest version to TMPGEnc I went to encode a movie I downloaded off of kazaa. It was an avi so I went threw the steps with the wizard and it looked like it was encoding untill I had no preview screen. So I thought maybe I need a codec so I downloaded nimo pack build 8. Still no preview screen. So I went to enviro. setting and went up on my direct show to 2. Still no screen. I downloaded virtual dub and thought maybe I will open it in this format and frameserve it to TMPGEnc. So I scaned and it said 0 bad frames 0 good frames file can't be encoded. how do I know if I have an avi that can't be encoded of if I have the right codec's confused help

[setarip]

"I went to encode a movie I downloaded off of kazaa."

Have you successfully played this movie?