What is AVI (.avi)?
Audio Video Interleave, better known as AVI, is a multimedia container format, which allows for synchronous video and audio playback. Microsoft introduced this format as part of its Video for Windows technology.
The AVI file format is compatible with Windows Media Player and widely used professional video editing tools such as VirtualDub. While more recent formats such MPEG4 are more efficient in terms of file size and compatibility with other media players, AVI is still the preferred format for transfer of video files at a basic level.
This sustained popularity for AVI files is probably due to the wide range and availability availability of plug-ins and tools to edit video footage in AVI format. It could also be attributed to the fact that DivX and other codecs were developed around the enhancement use and transfer of AVI files across networks. With such an infrastructure in place for AVI files, it will take other file formats some time to replace it, even if AVI does not offer the portability or file size efficiency of MP4 and other formats.
On a technical level, each AVI file is labeled with a four character code (FourCC) and a codec, such as DivX, can associate itself with a particular code. The problem with AVI and codecs is that an AVI file associated with a codec can be run only if that codec is installed on the computer. Thus, when Windows Media Player tries to run an AVI file, it has to look for the codec, and then ask the codec to open the file.If the codec is not installed on the computer, the media player will simply give an error message of “Codec Missing”. This cumbersome process goes against the universality and potability of media files. This is one of the main reasons for the decline in the use of the AVI file format.
