PE-12, 13, 2018 .avi Codec Not Installed

[Best_of_Breed]

I imported and successfully used dozens of .avi files several years ago using PE-13, it worked fine.

Then recently I opened that project and got a message that "This type of file is not supported, or the required codec is not installed."  Same for PE-12, PE13, and PE-2018.

It's important to know that I can open and play all of the .avi files in question using MS Media Player, and "Movies and TV," but not with Quick Time Player.

I used GSpot to find out that the .avi file uses MPEG2 codec.

To repeat, these .avi files worked fine a couple of years ago, but not now, and I can play these files with two other applications.

I've researched this in a lot of places and there are a lot of non-answers, and everyone who addresses this question simply asks 20 questions instead of what should be a simple answer:  How do I add the required codec and where is it added to?  I've tried but all of the download apps seem to do everything except add codecs.

[Steve Grisetti]

AVIs using the MPEG codec haven't ever really been supported by Premiere Elements. They're kind of a weird hybrid file.

You can try changing the file suffix to MPG and see if that makes a difference.

But you may need to convert the file to an editable format.

Before you do that though it would help us to know the specs of the file. Open one of your AVIs in the free download MediaInfo. Set MediaInfo's View to Text and then copy and paste the report it generates to this forum.

[Best_of_Breed]

Thanks for the reply!

I may be crazy, but I was certain that it worked a couple of years ago. I’ll give your suggestions a try.

Ken