And they keep telling me "Codec Error"

I just finnished downloading 3 AVI format video.
But when I open one of them,it worked just fine, but the real problem is the other two. When I opened it with MPC,WMP,and AVI Player,they keep telling me “Codec Error:Use Windows Media Player” and so I did,but this time they said “Aborting Video,Redirecting to Microsoft Codec Download page”.
After about 2 hours,I found about 19 codec that DID NOT WORK! I also used up another 1/2 hour trying to look for some AVI Player,and they still display the Codec Error message!
If anybody can come out with a solution,I’ll appreciate it.
AHW

You just downloaded codecs randomly without even knowing what’s in the file? How about trying a diagnostic utility to find out?
http://www.headbands.com/gspot
http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net
http://avicodec.duby.info

FYI some movies are just fakes that display an image “download codec at site xyz” at a site filled with malware. Just thought you’d like to know.