If you were always wondering about these video file formats and are having trouble uploading it to YouTube or any other video sharing site, read this post to see the differences between those two.
So first I’m going to explain you what is AVI and what’s MP4, then you can decide for what you want to use each and what’s right for you.
The video format AVI means “Audio Video Interleave”. Founded by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of a Video file for its Windows technologies. AVI files can have both video and audio data in a file container which can also support synchronous audio-video playback.
But there are also some thing about it that aren’t that good. It was developed in 1992 for Windows, so it lacks some features that newer file formats (containers) have like MPEG or MP4. But it is still one of the most popular and most used video formats for consumers and creators.
MP4 however, is a bit different. This file format name is the abbreviation for MPEG-4 Part 14. It can also store audio, video, subtitles and images in one single MP4 file. Though MP4 files can have different ending like .m4a, which is only a audio file,. it is still an extension to MP4.
This format is usually compressed with MPEG-4 video and AAC audio codec. This is obviously the most used file format, because you are able to upload it to any video sharing site and will not have any problem with the file format. Many cameras and phones will also record your video in an MP4 format, because it can be highly compressed with keeping high quality.
So which is better for you? You can use both of course. Both can also use many video codecs if you are able to change them in your phone, camera or recording software on your PC, to save disk space. But MP4 has still better quality for with the same size as the AVI and is much more compatible.
MP4 is also more supported on websites than AVI, and you can use MP4 for streaming for Twitch or YouTube as well. So if you have an AVI file and want to make it’s size smaller, you can try to use Movie Maker for PC or other video editing software for your mobile phone, to convert the AVI to an MP4 file.
