However when I try and open or play back an AVI file, I get no output. I have searched the Web and found on winehq that video for windows is at a 30% complete state. Is this true?
Changing msvfw32 to native in the config did not help.
Please can someone tell me if it is possible for a wine application to open an avi file (or better yet use video for windows codecs).
in generic terms yes. however, avi is an enveloppe to store video files, but the compression used can vary from file to file so, you need the specific decompressor to handle a given type of file normally, wine is ready (under the MCI and the msvfw32 interfaces at least) to play AVI files however, to get further with your issue, we need to know : 1/ which interface your program actually uses (MCI, msvfw, directx...) 2/ which codecs are installed and configured under wine 3/ the type of compressor used for your file (btw, does changing the avi file to play changes also what is output - or not output in your case)
A+