I need a good free app that will play .AVI files or will convert them to a suitable format (read Mpg)

Just about everything will read AVI...WMP, Winamp...and TMPGEnc can convert it to MPG.

Windows Media Reads .AVI?

I didnt think mine could

Do you have the right codec installed?? Get GSpot and it will tell you what Codec you need to play the AVI. Probaly DivX or Xvid.

Thats a lot of info, mind walking me through what I have to do in order to get Windows Media Player playing .AVI?

Okay...an AVI is a video compressed and encoded with a specific codec. The codec tells the compression how much to be compressed and how. You have to have teh same codec on your comp to decode it that was used to encode it. GSpot (link above) will tell you exactly what codec was used to encode the AVI. Then you ahve to go and get that codec and install it. If you want a mass install of codex get the Kazaa Lite Codec Pack...it has just bout every codec you will EVER need.

Your the best. Thanks for all the help.

No problemo amigo.