Games & gear forum: Playing .avi files on xbox 360

Depends on the codecs used in the AVI file. AVI isn't a format unto itself, it's a container format that can be used with a wide array of different codecs. Some of those might be playable on the 360, some won't.

Codecs supported by the 360 can be found on xbox.com and dozens of other sites. You have to install a special update, which requires you be able to connect to Xbox Live. As yet, I don't think there's any other way to add this support should you have a banned console.

As for converting from one format to the other, there are dozens of apps for that. VirtualDub is one of my personal favorites, but if you look around, you can probably find some that have specific settings just for the 360.

For my money though, unless you're looking to play high def stuff like 720p or 1080p, you really can't beat the old Xbox running Xbox Media Center or XBMC as it's now known. The 360's support feels very tacked on at the last minute and is tied to Windows Media Player or the Zune software. XBMC is most excellent, and a surprisingly polished program given it's open source. Sadly the first gen Xbox just doesn't have the hardware to handle high def content.