We've all been there: wanting to open an episode of our favorite series on our phone or computer, but for some reason the file doesn't start playing and we get an error message stating that this type of file is not compatible with the program being used.
But when we realize it's an AVI file, when we're on a computer we try to use another player and maybe we get some positive results, but when it's on a mobile phone and without the proper knowledge it becomes practically impossible to play the video.
Since we know you don't want to miss out on watching your series, in this article you will learn how to play them and which are the best programs for this task.
What are .AVI files and what are they used for?
An AVI file , or Audio Video Interleave , is simply a container for a digital video and one or more audio tracks. This allows users to choose and modify the audio of their playback according to their spoken language.
This is why these types of video files are usually completely separate from the audio, and it's during playback that interleaving, or "interleave," as the name suggests, occurs. This allows for better quality and a better user experience, but it also makes the file slightly larger than its counterparts.
This format was created by Microsoft and since 1992 has been considered one of the best formats for playing movies and long videos. It was designed for Windows but can be played on any operating system, provided the program used has the appropriate codecs.
How to open and play .AVI files on smartphones or computers?
Next, we'll see which programs we can use to open AVI format files and how, depending on your operating system.
On Windows PC
The easiest way to play these types of files on a Windows computer is by using the native Windows Media Player , since whatever version of Windows you have installed, it will be equipped to play files with the AVI extension.
In any case, if you have a computer with Windows 10, the native program for this type of file is "Movies & TV"; you just need to click on the video to start playback automatically.
On Mac computers
To play files with AVI extension on MacIt's a bit more complicated because its native player isn't compatible with this format. Therefore we must resort to two
programs from the software company Aiseesoft; With the first one we can play it on our Mac without any problems, and with the second one we can convert it to the native format of
Poppy.
The player in question is Aiseesoft Mac Blu-ray Player. This is a paid program, but it has an excellent trial version where you simply click on "Open File" and locate your video or movie to view it on screen in the best possible quality.
To convert the file to MOV format, simply download Aiseesoft Video Converter Ultimate . Once open, select the AVI video you want to view, choose the conversion extension (MOV in this case), click "Convert," and you can then play it using Mac's native player, QuickTime MOV.
On Android mobile phones
To view AVI videos on your Android device, you may need to download the following application. While it's true that the latest Android devices are adapting to this format, the experience might not be as smooth as with a well-known tool like VLC. This app will help you watch them in excellent quality from the comfort of your home.
On iPhone devices with iOS
On an iOS device, we will only need to get an application that is capable of playing this type of format; in this case, we will use Movie Player 3, since it is one of the best on the App Store capable of playing videos and movies in AVI format, and it is especially for playing movies in non-native formats on iPhone.
List of the best alternative apps and programs to play .avi videos
Below we will give you a short list of the best alternative programs that are fully functional on any operating system to play files with this.
VLC Media Player
This is undoubtedly an excellent alternative on any operating system you use, as it's a robust audio and video player capable of running almost any existing file extension. It's an open-source program developed by VideoLAN, supports high resolutions, and has the advantage that you'll almost never need to install external codecs.
Media Player Classic
It's a very good multimedia player developed for Microsoft Windows. Currently, it's the closest competitor to VLC Media Player, and it 's arguably one of the best video and audio players available, second only to VLC. Originally released as closed-source software, it was later made open source. It supports high definition and plays any video in this format perfectly.
Cyberlink PowerDVD
This is one of the oldest multimedia players, the one we used to watch all our movies with years ago. It's true that it faded into obscurity over time, as DVDs are used less and less, but that doesn't mean the folks at Cyberlink haven't been working on their software. They've made it fully functional for playing files in different formats on our computers, whether we're using a DVD or not. With this program, we can open any AVI file on our PC.
GOM Player
Another excellent multimedia player, available for almost any computer and mobile system. Capable of playing AVI files without any issues, it allows you to add external codecs via its integrated search engine, which greatly enhances the user experience.
Real Player
It's one of the best audio and video players to have stood the test of time since its release in 1995, capable of supporting a wide range of formats, including AVI. It can be installed on any operating system and all versions, as it has the ability to play high-definition video.
How to quickly and freely convert .AVI videos to .MP4?
To convert a video from AVI format to MP4 , we will present two simple ways. The first will be with a trial license program called Freemake Video Converter.
We just need to download it for free from its official website (Freemake.com), and then add it to later transform it.
Then, without much complication, we just need to click on "Convert" and wait for the action to be performed, and when it is ready we can play it in the new format in the program of our choice.
The second way To do so, we will use an online converter, which we will access with the following address https://www.media.io/es/convert/avi-to-mp4.htmlOnce the page is open on the main screen, the option to “Add your files” and the option to convert to MP4 will already be selected; once this is done, we will click on "Convert".
Finally, all that remains is to play the MP4 file in your preferred player and enjoy all the content.
