Unfortunately, like any uncompressed format (even more so today, with high-definition (HD) and even higher resolution formats used in professional video), this would produce very large files, requiring fast hard disk drives (HDD) and fast computers to keep playback smooth without dropping frames or having audio synchronization issues. Many of those CODECs were not the most efficient in terms of crunching down large amounts of data into small ones, AVI file players could produce especially high-quality playback when uncompressed (lossless) content was captured in what is also known as RAW form. The question was, would AVI video players help Microsoft catch up? WHAT IS AVI? HOW DID IT LEAD TO FREE AVI PLAYERS?ĪVI was originally created as a file format to contain nearly any kind of CODEC ( compression/decompression algorithm) of that era. Although Apple was already ahead of the game, incorporating video into computers with its QuickTime technology. Microsoft had long seen the world of video as its entrée into the living room by creating an AVI movie player that would blend together computing and television. Buckle your seat belts, because we’re going to jerk you back some twenty years to trace the history of the impressive AVI player.ĭeveloped by Microsoft for use in their Windows PC architecture, the formal name for the AVI container format is Audio Video Interleave (Interleave because the video and audio are bound together in chunks) and is identified by its file name extension.

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