I am attempting to watch some media on the computers which have been encoded in DivX format. The only player I can find which can play this format is the free DivX player. However, whenever I use this software it freezes. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling, but the problem persists. Windows Media Player, Nero Showtime, and PowerDVD are all unable to play the media, so I really need to use DivX. Can you help?

You don’t actually need the DivX player on your computer to play DivX movies. This may sound strange, but all the DivX player does is install codecs on your computer allowing the playback of DivX movies. Codecs allow your computer to understand the format of the movie, and allow playback on your computer. However, there are alternative codecs which allow you to play back DivX and other content in Windows Media Player and other players. One of the best codecs is ffdshow (http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/codecs_and_filters/ffdshow.cfm ). Once you install this codec package on your computer you will be able to open DivX, XviD, etc. media within programs such as Windows Media Player and they should play normally. This solution is likely to be much easier than attempting to fix the DivX player, and will also be more convenient for you when attempting to play back the movies, since you can play them within your favourite media player, rather than having to load a specialised player whenever you wish to play DivX media.