How to get AVI files to play/import in Sony Vegas

Ever import an AVI file into a Sony Vegas movie editing program and find it will not play either the video or audio? It only takes a few simple steps to get rid of this frustration. I am going to show you how to get Sony Vegas to recognize AVI files with a xvid extension.

1. First, you need to download and install DivX media player. It is a safe and free download from the DivX web site. The DivX media player download has all the proper codecs to play DivX files and installs them safely on your computer. For some reason having these codecs installed enables Sony Vegas to recognize and play DivX files.

2. Step 2

   Next, download and install AVI FourCC Changer. You can download it at Digital Digest. It is a very small and safe application which changes the xvid extension to a DivX extension without any file conversion. It is a very handy tool to simply rename a file extension.

3. Step 3

   Open up AVI FourCC Changer program and a small box will appear. Use the browse button to import the AVI file which you want to change the extension for. Once you choose the file, you will see the original file extension in the first box. This should be xvid. In the second box, you should see DIVX. If this does not automatically show in the box, click on the drop down menu and select it. The final step is to click apply and this will simply change the xvid extension name to a DIVX extension name.

   Now, your AVI file should import into Sony Vegas without any problems. I find this to be the quickest and simplest way to solve this problem. Hope this helps!