My problem with .AVI files is even worse ...
I don't even receive any error messages.

When I process an .avi file from within the admin panel, the status of the file turns into: Convert Started ... at least those are the two words that appear there. Nothing else. No error or anything else, not for 5 minutes, not for 30 minutes, not ever. And the files that I'm using are relatively small ranging in size from 4 MB to slightly under 20 MB. Importing from folder import didn't work and neither did the same file after uploading from a user account within the vshare utube clone. Oddly enough, the files do show up in VIDEO (but won't work or show up on the site) and they do NOT show up in the flvideo folder. Again, I'm talking about .AVI files.

It shouldn't be a permissions issue since the folder and files are set to 777. Files like .WMV and .MOV appear to be working fine since I do receive the "convert again" message in the queue. The .MPG files appear to work fine as well.

Why do files have to be converted in the first place? I don't understand this at all. When I enter sites like utube in the USA or clipfish in Europe, I can upload a file and see it working within a couple of minutes after the upload is finished. Even files as large as 62 MB (my largest upload). Do all of the files have to be processed manually? If so, why can't they be made to work like on other clip portals? We have a server that's designated strictly to our domain and that machine has a 64 bit Debian OS with 64 bit AMD 6000+ CPU and 8 GB of Ram. Newest PHP and SQL. The machine is clearly not the problem. Any advice or helpful words of wisdom would be sincerely appreciated. Thank you.