unsupported format ?

[dad of 1]

I just installed Premier Elements 4 on xp machine. Already has Photoshop 6 installed When I went to edit a avi file in Elements I get the following message

"unsupported format or damaged file/some of the necessary componets may not have been installed" I reinstalled the program same error message.

No matter which avi file I open I get the same message. No problem with mpeg files

[Barb O]

Dad,

Not all .avi files are the same - in fact they can be very different. There are many different kinds of video files made using many different codecs that can be stored in a .avi file. So please tell us more about the file that failed -
--- what codec?
--- if you don't know the codec, tell us what you know
--- if it came from a camera - is it a digital still camera that takes video clips or a video camera? Might help to identify the make and model of the camera

[JohnnyO]

Already has Photoshop 6 installed When I went to edit a avi file in Elements I get the following message

"unsupported format or damaged file/some of the necessary componets may not have been installed"

Just to be clear. Are you trying to edit the .avi in Premiere Elements or photoshop Elements.

If Photoshop Elements, I don't believe you can edit .avis there.

If Premiere Elements, you would be better off opening a topic inthe Premiere Elements 4.0 forum.

[Chuck Engels]

Try to open the file in Windows Movie Maker and see if it works there, if not then the file is bad.
If it does work in Movie Maker you can convert it to DV-AVI which will work just fine in Premiere Elements.
There is a free tutorial on how to do that in our Products/Complimentary section

[dad of 1]

Chuck...the free lesson did the job. The files were originally on vcr tapes transferred to dvd on a low cost dual machine. Then the files would not play inside of Photoshop 6 so I used isofter dvd ripper and converted them to Divx+mp3 (*.avi) they then played and had thumbnails. No issue until I went to work on the files inside of Elements 4 when it showed them unsupportable. Anyway this was my 3rd issue solved this week from the forums..... Thanks again.

[Chuck Engels]

Glad we could help Dad

If you would please, post in the Introductions forum and tell us a little about yourself.