An AVI file is one of the oldest common video wrappers where Audio Video Interleave describes how audio and video are bundled, but not how they’re compressed, since the actual codecs decide that—meaning two .avi files can differ wildly depending on the codec setup, leading to playback problems if a player lacks support; its longevity keeps it alive in older downloads, camera outputs, and CCTV systems, though it’s generally less efficient and less consistent across devices than formats like MP4 or MKV.

An AVI file is an older but common video type identified by ".avi," where Audio Video Interleave simply means the audio and video are bundled together, yet AVI itself doesn’t define how they’re compressed—the codec inside does, which leads to playability differences if the player can’t decode the internal streams; while AVI still appears in legacy archives, downloaded videos, and camera or DVR exports, newer formats like MP4 and MKV typically offer smaller sizes.

An AVI file is simply a wrapper that holds audio and video and not a compression format, since ".avi" just signals Audio Video Interleave packaging, while the codec—such as Xvid, DivX, MJPEG, MP3, AC3, or PCM—determines compatibility and file size; this leads to differing behavior where one AVI works fine but another won’t open or has missing audio if the player doesn’t support the embedded codec, reinforcing the container-versus-codec distinction.

AVI is often called a common video format due to its long lifespan in the Windows ecosystem, having been introduced during Microsoft’s Video for Windows era, which made it a default choice for storing and sharing video on PCs; that historical momentum meant older cameras, screen recorders, editors, and many CCTV/DVR systems adopted it, so plenty of software still opens AVI files today, and you’ll see them in older downloads and archived collections, even though newer workflows often prefer MP4 or MKV for their greater efficiency.

When people explain that "AVI isn’t the compression," they mean AVI serves only as a wrapper and doesn’t control how audio or video are actually compressed; that job belongs to the codec used inside, which may be DivX, Xvid, MJPEG, H.264 for video or MP3, AC3, PCM for audio, so two AVIs can behave entirely differently even though the extensions match, because a device might support AVI as a container but not the internal compression, leading to no-sound issues, refusal to play, or limited support outside of players like VLC If you are you looking for more information on AVI file extraction look into the web site. .