AVI to MP4
Bring an old AVI into a format made this decade.
Your file
Drop a file here, or click to choose
It stays on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Settings
Old files, old codecs
AVI dates from 1992 and usually holds DivX, Xvid or MPEG-4 Part 2 video with MP3 audio. Converting to h.264 in MP4 typically produces a smaller file that looks the same, and it will play on phones and TVs that have never heard of AVI.
Very old AVIs are often 480p or lower. There is nothing to gain from upscaling, leave the resolution on "keep original".
Why AVI files are so awkward
AVI is a container from 1992, and it predates most of what modern video takes for granted. It has no clean way to store variable frame rate, no standard place for a rotation flag, poor support for modern audio, and a 2 GB size ceiling in its original form that some writers still respect and some quietly ignore. Software that opens it at all often opens it badly. None of this is about the pictures inside, which are usually fine; it is the wrapper that has aged out.
The codecs inside are the second problem. DivX and Xvid were everywhere in the 2000s and are now decoded by roughly nothing outside FFmpeg and VLC. That is why an AVI plays in VLC and nowhere else, and why converting it is the practical answer rather than hunting for a codec pack, which was always a bad idea and is a worse one now.
Interlacing, if the file came off a camcorder
Video from a tape camcorder or a TV capture is often interlaced: each frame is two fields captured a fraction of a second apart, woven together. On a CRT that looked correct. On any modern screen it shows as horizontal comb teeth along anything moving. Converting does not remove this, it encodes the combing faithfully into the MP4. Media info will tell you the frame rate, and 29.97 or 25 fps on old footage is a strong hint. There is no deinterlacer on this site, so if you have that footage, this conversion will make it playable rather than clean.
What to expect from the result
The file will usually be smaller, sometimes by half, because h.264 is a considerably better codec than what is in there. It will not look better. Nothing can add detail an old encoder discarded twenty years ago, and pushing the quality slider to 16 only preserves the existing artefacts more accurately at a much larger size. Leave it at 23, or move to 20 if the footage matters and will be edited again.
If the audio disappears after converting, the AVI is carrying something this build does not decode, usually an old proprietary codec or AC-3. Media info will name it.
Common questions
Will this improve the quality?
No. It cannot recover detail the original never had. It makes the file playable and usually smaller.
My AVI has no sound after converting.
Some old AVIs use audio codecs this build does not include. The media info tool will tell you which codec is inside.