[MEncoder-users] How to determine the codec of AVI file

[Dave M G]

Mencoder list,

A friend who uses Windows gave me an AVI file. This person doesn't
really know anything about codecs or anything, they just used some
software that came with their video camera to generate the file.

The thing is, it doesn't play on my Ubuntu 7.10 system. I do a fair
amount of video playback and editing on my system, so I thought I had
every codec available by now.

My friend tried making another file for me, but same result.

Bottom line, I have a file of unclear origins that won't play.

The file type is AVI, but maybe that's incorrect. When I try opening it 
in Mplayer, it simply says "failed to open file". When I try to open it 
in Xine, it says "There is no demuxer plugin available to handle the 
file. Usually this means that the file format was not recognized."

Is there some way I can either determine what kind of file and codec the 
file is, and/or convert it to something playable on Linux?

Thank you for any advice.

-- 
Dave M G