Last updated on January 23rd, 2024 at 02:33 am
AVI means Audio Video Interleaved.
AVI is a video container. You can store audio, video, and other supported multimedia files in it.
The AVI file comes with the .avi extension.
AVI videos are encoded in the DivX and Xvid codecs and use the AVI container to hold audio and video files.
Who Created AVI?
Microsoft created AVI in 1992 with the intention of providing a dynamic AV format for the Windows platform as an answer to the MOV format developed by Apple.
According to Microsoft, its AVI file format falls under the RIFF specification. It is compatible with applications designed to capture, edit and play back AV footage.
Support for AVI Video Format
The AVI format is supported across the Windows platform. That’s understandable as it’s a Microsoft product. AVI is guaranteed playback over Windows Media Player.
Although AVI seems to be a proprietary format, it has found wide support over the years.
These days, even ‘rival’ platforms like Mac and Linux support AVI in some of their applications.
Even cloud storage services like Google Drive support the playback of AVI
On top of that open-source programs like the VLC Media Player supports its playback, not to mention Media Player Classic (MPC-HC)
Video Editing Support
Almost all video editing programs support the import and export of the AVI video format.
Even free video editing programs like Shotcut and HitFilm Express support the import and export of AVI.
So, if you have an AVI file rest assured that you can edit and even burn it to DVD especially if you’re on the Windows platform.
DV AVI Video Capture
When you capture video through a Firewire connection to your computer, the video is imported in the DV AVI format, which could later be edited and exported to other formats.
This digital quality video takes up about 13GB of space for an hour of video.
The AVI Video Format Drawbacks
Despite its versatility, AVI is not without its shortcomings,
Lack of Soft Sub Support
For one, the AVI video format doesn’t support softsubs or soft subtitles.
Soft subtitles are separate subtitle files that can be included in a video container format to be turned on or turned off according to the user’s preference.
These subtitle files come in the form of .sub or .srt extension.
Unsuitable for Video Streaming
In these days of web video streaming, AVI is an outsider as it doesn’t support video streaming.
AVI vs MP4 : Which is Better?
Both AVI and MP4 stand up to each other as both are dynamic video containers.
You can really say which offers better quality, Video quality depends on the codecs used when videos are encoded or processed.
Who’s Winning the High Definition Video Battle?
But in these days of high-definition video, MP4 seems to have the edge over AVI, especially when it comes to HD codecs.
AVI doesn’t support HEVC/H265, namely the VP9 codec designed for 4K video,
In this sense, MP4 triumphs over AVI which can only support HD and Full HD video.
