What is AVI?

AVI, also called Audio Video Interleaved, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. It is currently the most popular video format worldwide. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback. Like the DVD video format, AVI files support multiple streaming audio and video, although these features are not widely used.

Pros and Cons of AVI:

Pros:  

It can be used across multiple platforms. 

Cons:  

1-      AVI does not provide a standardized way to encode aspect ratio information, with the result that players cannot select the right aspect ratio automatically and some AVI videos may not be playable.

2-      There are several competing approaches to including a time code in AVI files, which affects usability of the format in film and television post-production, although it is widely used.

3-      AVI cannot contain some specific types of variable bitrate (VBR) data reliably (such as MP3 audio at sample rates below 32 kHz).

Related Software:

Macgo Mac Blu-ray Player: Play AVI movies on your Mac.
Macgo Windows Blu-ray Player: Play AVI on Windows platforms.
Macgo Free Mac Media Player: Play AVI for Mac OS X.

Related Source:

Free AVI player: Mac Blu-ray Player works as free AVI player software.
DV AVI: A type of AVI file where the video has been compressed to conform to DV standards.