Audio video

Audio video Interleaved (AVI) is a video container format defined by Microsoft, which is derived from the REEF introduced for Windows 3,1 (resource interCHANGE file format). In a AVI file can be present several video, audio and text sub-title data streams, which can be coded with different procedures (from there it also container format). The type of a Videostreams is stored over FourCCs so called (Four character code). For Audiostreams TwoCCs are used. For coding or decoding for each Stream an appropriate codec is needed. Most AVI files use the extensions, which were presented by the Matrox OpenDML group in February 1996.

Advantages of AVI:

- the AVI format is far common and by most Multimedia programs is supported

- the format is supported also by a multiplicity of DVD players (if codes are contained, which the player can read)

Disadvantages of AVI:

- not for each audio format suitably (e.g. ffmpeg the specification had to lay out far, in order to permit (Ogg) Vorbis audio in AVI files)

- bad support for sub-title (sub-title as pictures, like on DVDs, are not possible so far)

- no support of menus or chapters

- bad support for adapted aspect ratio (Aspect reason)

- Zudem führten einige weitverbreitete, aber fehlerhafte Programme, Splitter und Codecs zu Problemen, wie z. B. bei der Wiedergabe von AVI-Dateien mit VBR-Audiospur oder mit MPEG-4-Videospur.