windows media player .avi codec?

whenever I try and play a .avi file through windows media player or any other media player, i get a message saying 'error downloading codec'. what is a free decoder or whatever i need that will let me play these files?

I would recommend Xvid. Its free and you can get it from here http://www.xvidmovies.com/codec/ . It will decode Divx and just about everything else without any hassles. You could also go with Divx and they have a free version for watching avi files however I prefer Xvid over Divx myself.

Can’t play audio

Nero has a decoder.
I’m having a problem in saving a video to my computer in WMM. Sometimes it will fly through the save. . you know that isn’t happening. . and then it will give me a few pictures and the sound goes on with the picture frozen. It either does that or gives me a Dr. Watson error. Anyone have this happening? I’ve checked filters and all I have are Nero filters.