AVB can mean several different things depending on where it appears, which is why confusion is common; when you’re dealing with an .AVB file extension, it usually refers to an Avid Bin from Avid Media Composer that stores organizational metadata like clips, subclips, sequences, and markers while the actual audio/video lives separately in places such as `Avid MediaFiles\MXF`, and because it’s an Avid-specific format, you open it only inside Avid, with offline media typically pointing to relinking needs rather than bin corruption, whereas outside Avid, "AVB" can also mean unrelated networking or Android-security terms that don’t function as openable files.

In specialized A/V workflows and some vehicle Ethernet setups, AVB signifies Audio Video Bridging, an IEEE standard set centered on timing and bandwidth guarantees for real-time streams—network config, not file handling; in Android development, AVB usually stands for Android Verified Boot, validating system partitions via `vbmeta`, and in rare legacy cases `.avb` might even correspond to Microsoft Comic Chat Character files if unrelated to Avid’s ecosystem.

How you open an AVB file is determined by the specific AVB format you’re dealing with, but if it’s the common Avid Bin (.avb), you don’t open it with a normal app—you load it inside Avid Media Composer by opening the project and then opening the bin, where clips and sequences appear as Avid items; if everything opens but says Media Offline, the bin is usually fine and you just need to reconnect `Avid MediaFiles\MXF` using Relink or database rebuilds, and if the bin seems damaged, restoring a recent backup from Avid Attic is often the quickest fix.

If "AVB" in your case refers to Audio Video Bridging networking, you aren’t interacting with a file, since AVB is a set of Ethernet standards requiring configuration of AVB-ready hardware; if it refers to Android Verified Boot, you’re inspecting firmware artifacts like `vbmeta` through development utilities, and if it’s the rare Microsoft Comic Chat Character `.avb`, only old Microsoft programs or legacy viewers can handle it.

An Avid Bin (`.avb`) stores no actual frames or samples, and that’s the key idea: it’s a metadata container that records editorial decisions like which clips exist, what timecode ranges you used, how sequences are built, and what markers you added, while the real media lives separately in MXF folders such as `Avid MediaFiles\MXF\...`; copying only the `.avb` moves the "map" without the "territory," so Avid can open the bin but will show Media Offline until the correct media is attached or relinked, and this design keeps bins light, easy to back up, and separate from heavy media—meaning an `.avb` alone won’t "play" unless the media or another export format accompanies it.