AVI (Audio Video Interleave)

AVI is a legacy multimedia container developed by Microsoft that interleaves audio and video streams. While it supports many codecs, AVI lacks modern features like native streaming, variable frame rates, and subtitle tracks, making it largely obsolete for new content.

MIME Type

video/x-msvideo

Type

Binary

Compression

Lossy

Advantages

+ Simple structure that is easy to parse
+ Wide legacy software support
+ Compatible with many older codecs

Disadvantages

− No native streaming or fast seeking support
− Cannot embed subtitles or chapters
− Larger files than equivalent MP4 due to format overhead

When to Use .AVI

Avoid AVI for new projects; use MP4 or MKV. Convert existing AVI files to modern formats for better compatibility and smaller sizes.

Technical Details

AVI uses the RIFF container with interleaved audio and video chunks. It supports many codecs (DivX, Xvid, MJPEG) but lacks standardized support for B-frames, variable bitrate audio, and modern features.

History

Microsoft introduced AVI in 1992 as part of the Video for Windows framework. It was the dominant video format on PCs throughout the 1990s and early 2000s before being superseded by MP4 and MKV.

Convert from .AVI

.avi → .3gp .avi → .aac .avi → .flac .avi → .flv .avi → .gif .avi → .jpg .avi → .m4v .avi → .mkv .avi → .mov .avi → .mp3 .avi → .mp4 .avi → .mpeg .avi → .mpg .avi → .mts .avi → .mxf .avi → .ogg .avi → .ogv .avi → .png .avi → .vob .avi → .wav .avi → .webm .avi → .webp .avi → .wmv

Convert to .AVI

.3gp → .avi .aac → .avi .flac → .avi .flv → .avi .gif → .avi .jpg → .avi .m4v → .avi .mkv → .avi .mov → .avi .mp3 → .avi .mp4 → .avi .mpeg → .avi .mpg → .avi .mts → .avi .mxf → .avi .ogg → .avi .ogv → .avi .png → .avi .vob → .avi .wav → .avi .webm → .avi .webp → .avi .wmv → .avi

Related Formats

.3gp .flv .m4v .mkv .mov .mp4 .mpeg .mpg .mts .mxf .ogv .vob .webm .wmv

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