.mkv file conversion to avi please help

Hi , im new at this so here goes. dld an mkv file from azureus, it played fine on azureus itself. tried 2 converters no luck its like its not recognising the codec (i have installed cccp). I keep getting error messages.It also won’t play on Media Player Classic or Zoomplayer. I have directx 9c and have also tried Riverpast and still no luck. Use MediaInfo to check the file itself and no realplayer stuff just Vorbis and AVC. I have no idea what to do.
I’m trying to convert the mkv file to avi so i can convert on to ipod video format. can anyone help i’m ready to explode thanks

AVC (H.264) is really not meant for use with AVI. That’s probably why you haven’t seen very many implementations yet. It’s mostly used in the MP4 and MKV containers for a reason.

Here’s a couple of links that could be of interest
http://anime.nickistre.net/blog_entry/anime/2007/03/03/mkv_h_264_codec_to_avi_xvid_codec_conversion (seems there’s a new project named alltoavi... you learn something new everyday - you can also do it their way)
http://club.cdfreaks.com/f32/mkv-avc-h-264-avi-135897/