AVI is the common file extension for video and audio files that are compressed or have codecs that you need to decode in order to play this AVI file. But some AVI player or AVI viewer have automatic decoding function if you attempt to play or view an AVI format file.

What is an AVI format?

An AVI format is a file extension introduced by Microsoft for Videos and audio files or data for its Window system. Thus, if you downloaded an AVI audio file or an AVI video from the internet and your computer is not Windows, there is great probability you can’t play these AVI files on your computer. But even though your computer or the operating system of your computer is Windows if you do not have a compatible media player for it, like the Windows Media Player software still it will not work. Thus, it is necessary that if you wanted to view or play a video or audio that has AVI format you must have an AVI player or an AVI viewer for the avi files you have downloaded in order to play it or view it. But aside from Microsoft’s Windows Media Player Software for AVI files, there are some softwares out there in the internet that is build to play and view an AVI file. Thus, if your computer or the operating system of your computer is not Windows you can download or installed a non-Microsoft AVI Player or AVI viewer software from the internet in able to view or play AVI files you wanted to view or play. Or, it can be the Windows Media Player Software itself you can install in your non-Windows computer if it can be installed in case your computer is Linux or Mac, but it can be I know.

Anyway, AVI stands for Audio Video Interleave created as I mention above by Microsoft as a container for Audio and Video files of Windows, particularly Windows 3.1. Thus, it lacks newer containers like MPEG and MP4 or such files cannot be played on it. However, it could play DVD files except only DVD files with MPEG and MP4 format. But despite of its limitedness in usage, Windows Media Player is still widely used to play AVI files and a container for a download AVI file.

Not only you should have an AVI player in order to play AVI files but also the corresponding codecs of the Avi File in order to play it. Some codecs frequently used are DivX, XviD, Cinepak, and others. These codecs are used to compress an AVI file to minimized file size but not damaging the quality of the video or audio, or it compresses it. Compression is needed for a video or audio file because of their large storage and bandwidth capacity. Thus, any AVI files should be coded or compress if you are saving storage and bandwidth in your computer, lest you spend extra cost for installing extra bandwidth to your computer to accommodate all your datas especially your AVI files. Thus, encoding or putting a codecs to an AVI file is good and beneficial and economical. However, if you are looking for codecs for your AVI file, there are free AVI codec out there in the internet, as well as AVI converters. Moreover, there are also AVI codecs for Windows Media Player.