I have two MPG files of a performance I did, a friend burned took some video for me, yet I cannot get any player to open them - any ideas to why this might be and how it could be fixed?

What players did you try and what errors did you get?

 

You might want to try VLC Player, KMP or Zoom Player for a quick solution to playing troublesome files.

Thanks for the reply, I tried the players you suggested and there were no positive developments

Ah, he fiddled personally with the encoding. In that case, yes, it would be best to have him give you another version.