AVI Media input results in error message

[NCRoadRunner]

A friend passed me a movie on a thumb drive, and it 'shows' as an .avi file. When I set up the project and attempt the 'get media' it results in an error message indicating that it does not recognise the format. 'GSPOT' indicates that the codec is 'XVID'; Name: 'XviD ISO MPEG-4. What must I do to get this .avi file into Adobe Premere? I have 'pulled' other .avi files in with no trouble, so I'm a bit confused....
THX.... Henri....

[Chuck Engels]

Hi Henri,
The AVI format is only a container, kind of like saying Cola comes in a bottle. The bottle is the AVI container, what is inside can be Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, or whatever. I am not familiar with the XVid formats or how to convert them if necessary. Could be that just changing the extension from AVI to MP4 might do the trick. I'm sure that someone will be along shortly with more info about how to make this work

[Steve Grisetti]

Divx and Xvid are strange creatures. They're great delivery formats -- but almost impossible to edit.

You'll need to use a program like Super to convert them to DV-AVIs.

To use Super, set the Output Container drop-down menu to DV -- and leave everything else at its default setting. (Although, if you are using PAL video, ensure that Video Scale Size is set to 720:576.) Drag the video you want to convert to the area just below the Output specs and click Encode.

Super can be downloaded from http://www.erightsoft.com/S6Kg1.html