.avi + Mpeg Layer 3 Codec problems!

[Carci]

I've been trying to find a way to cut out the majority of a video I have, to create a file that just has a short clip from the video. I can watch the video just fine in winamp, WMP, WMPclassic (preferred choice--slimmer interface), videoLAN, and pretty much any other movie player program. I know I have the codecs to play back the video (Obviously, if I can play them in the different media players), but whenever I try to import the video into a program such as Windows Movie Maker, or Video Edit Magic, it says I don't have the appropriate codecs, the program can't open the file, and it fails to automatically download the appropriate codec.

Some of the programs suggest I open up the video in Windows Media Player to have it download the codec... but doing this just plays the video, since I -do- have the codecs installed on my computer. I'm at a complete loss as to what to do now.

The video in question is roughly 45 minutes long (I'm wanting to cut out a 1 minute clip), and is a .avi file, with Mpeg layer 3 audio. 23 frames / second, 528x288 resolution, video is 92kbps bitrate, audio is 130kbps bitrate.

Are there any suggestions as to what I can do to solve the problem?

[Pyrion]

This is a simple-enough task that VirtualDub can handle just fine.

Note that to keep it from reencoding everything, set both the audio and video to Direct Stream Copy before you save the cut version, if you otherwise don't want to change the codecs used.

[Carci]

Tried out the VirtualDub, it gives me an error message saying

"Couldn't locate decompressor for format 'XVID' (unknown)
VirtualDub requires a Video for Windows (VFW) compatible codec to decompress video. DirectShow codecs, such as those used by Windows Media Player, are not suitable.

I'm stumped now... and I'm feeling really noobish. *cry*

[Katsurugi]

Then you need to get xvid or other codec packs as well. You can find it pretty easily. I usually download Koepi's latest stable version. If you just want a large number of codecs, just download CCCP, Combined Community Codec Pack. I'm not too sure if this will help you too much though. I don't do any audio/video editing myself.

[Pyrion]

http://www.koepi.org/xvid.shtml