AVI Converters

AVI was the dominant video format for over a decade (1995-2008). If you have old digital videos—from early camcorders, downloaded movies from the DivX/XviD era, or archived content—they're probably AVI files.

Many people have hundreds of AVI files in backup drives. The format is obsolete for new content, but perfectly valid for preserving existing recordings.

AVI files typically contain MP3 audio at 128-192 kbps (for compressed videos) or PCM uncompressed audio (from camcorders). Some movie rips include AC3 Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound.

The audio quality varies wildly—2001 internet downloads were often 64-96 kbps MP3, while camcorder recordings preserved full-quality PCM audio.

Neither iOS nor most Android devices support AVI playback. The format predates smartphones by 15 years, and phone manufacturers didn't include legacy codec support.

Your options: Install VLC Player (works on both platforms), convert the entire video to MP4, or simply extract the audio if that's all you need. Audio extraction is fastest and produces universally compatible files.

For archival purposes, keep the original AVI files. Re-encoding lossy video always reduces quality. AVI as a container format is perfectly stable for long-term storage.

If you just want the audio content—family conversations, music, lectures—extracting to MP3 or WAV gives you a universally playable file without touching the video archive.