I have tried all the suggested fixes on the Activision site for fixing this problem and it still wont work. Anyone got any ideas - Activision have suggested that we update all our drivers - we've spent hours doing that and it still wont play! We now have direct x 8 as the one on the CD didn't work after several re-installs.
I thought a bit about the "iv50" until i realized that it might stand for the Intel Indeo Video 5.0 codec and i was right. I downloaded the codec and now the videos work!
The link (Indeo isn't an Intel brand anymore): http://www2.us.ligos.com/ids/indeo/iv5setup.exe