What is AVI?
Developed in 1992 by Microsoft, AVI (Audio Video Interleave) is a multimedia container format that stores both audio and video data in a single file allowing for in-sync audio with video playback.
AVI files tend to be large, particularly if stored uncompressed. They are a preferred format when preserving high-quality audio and video is more important than keeping the file size small.
Why do people still use AVI?
Many media players and editing software (especially on Windows) still use AVI. Plus, this format allows you to store high-quality video and audio with its lossless compression, which is perfect when you want to preserve it for archival purposes.
What is the equivalent of AVI?
MP4 is the modern equivalent of AVI since it’s more efficient at compression while still maintaining audio quality. MKV and MOV are two common alternatives to AVI which also support high-quality video and audio.
Why is AVI called AVI?
AVI is short for Audio Video Interleave. The word interleave comes from its ability to combine audio and video into a single file. Even though the audio and video are stored as separate “streams,” the interleaving process ensures that audio and video are played back in sync.
