An AVI file serves as a familiar container type where AVI stands for Audio Video Interleave, meaning it bundles audio and video together but isn’t the compression method itself—the codecs inside determine how the media is encoded, so two .avi files can behave very differently depending on the specific compression
formats inside, which is why some play fine while others stutter or lose sound; AVI persists in older downloads, archives, camera exports, and CCTV footage because it’s been around since early Windows, though compared to modern formats like MP4 or MKV it can be inconsistent across devices.
An AVI file is a widely seen video format ending in ".avi," with its name—Audio Video Interleave—indicating that audio and video are packaged together, but the real compression depends on whichever encoder was used inside the container; this is why some .avi files work smoothly and others fail or lack sound when the device can’t decode the internal streams, and although AVI persists in older downloads and CCTV/camera outputs, it’s usually less efficient and less universally supported than MP4 or MKV.

An AVI file is fundamentally a container for encoded media because ".avi" only identifies the Audio Video Interleave container holding video and audio streams, while the codec inside—Xvid, DivX, MJPEG for video or MP3, AC3, PCM for audio—governs whether it plays smoothly or fails, which is why two AVIs can differ widely if a device can’t decode the compression packed inside, emphasizing that the container is separate from the compression method.
AVI is seen as a common video type thanks to its early widespread adoption, having been introduced in the Video for Windows era and becoming a default video container for many years—used by cameras, screen recorders, editors, and DVR systems—leading to broad support even now; still, modern workflows typically choose MP4 or MKV for their more stable compatibility.
When people say "AVI isn’t the compression," they mean AVI simply stores streams without defining the compression method, leaving that to the codec inside, which can vary from DivX/Xvid to MJPEG or H.264 for video and MP3/AC3/PCM for audio; this is why two AVI files can differ massively in size, quality, and compatibility, with devices supporting AVI only in cases where they also support the specific media formats used, which explains why some AVIs play fine while others show video without sound or fail on smart TVs If you are you looking for more in regards to
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