different avi-types?

Hello!

I have rescued a couple of *.avi files from a friend's win-xp system 
crash ;-|.

Most files are the original downstream files from his camera. These files (up 
to 4GB, but also smaller ones) can not be read by mainactor 3.5 or mainactor 
5.0-demo from the suse distributions.
Kaffeine shows a black screen but  plays the sound - it may be a tribute to my 
weak system (PII/350).

Avi files which were allready treated by Pinacle can be handled by mainactor.

My question: Are there different types of avi and/or i need extra libs/
plugins/workarounds ?

thx frank