(
Audio
Video
Interleave) A multimedia container format from Microsoft that has been widely used for video playback in the Windows world. AVI was the first A/V format for Windows. Based on the RIFF format, AVI is known as a "container format" because it is used for multiple encoding methods, not just one. For example, AVI video compression methods (video codecs) include DivX, Xvid, Cinepak, Indeo, DV and Motion JPEG, as well as uncompressed RGB and YUV2. AVI audio includes compressed MP3 and Microsoft's ADPCM (MS ADPCM), as well as uncompressed PCM.
AVI was one of the first digital formats to intermix small chunks of video and audio one after the other; hence, the name "interleave." See
RIFF and
multimedia container.