Convert QuickTime (MOV) to AVI
Free online converter for QuickTime (MOV) files. Legacy container with broad desktop support. Nothing to install, no watermark, and every file is deleted automatically.
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Upload a QuickTime (MOV) file to convert it to AVI. Up to 3 files at once, 100 MB each.
Free · up to 3 files · 100 MB each · files deleted automatically after 1 hour.
About MOV and AVI
QuickTime (MOV) .mov
Apple's QuickTime container. Technically close to MP4 — the two share ancestry — but tuned for editing and Apple's tools.
Good for
- The native output of Apple cameras and Final Cut
- Handles high-quality intermediate codecs like ProRes
- Supports transparency with the right codec
Trade-offs
- Larger than MP4, especially with editing codecs
- Inconsistent support outside Apple platforms
- ProRes files are enormous
video/quicktime
AVI .avi
A Microsoft container from 1992. Still readable everywhere, but it predates modern streaming, subtitles and variable bitrate audio.
Good for
- Opens in very old software
- Simple, well-understood structure
Trade-offs
- Much larger than MP4 for the same quality
- No native subtitle support
- Poor handling of variable bitrate audio and modern codecs
video/x-msvideo
MOV and AVI side by side
| MOV | AVI | |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | Container — often H.264 or ProRes | Container — usually older codecs |
| Transparency | Yes — with ProRes 4444 | No |
| Typically used for | Apple cameras, video editing | Legacy video files |
What changes when you convert MOV to AVI
MOV and AVI are unrelated containers
MOV is built on QuickTime, the format ISO's MP4 was derived from. AVI is RIFF, Microsoft's chunk format from 1992. A container is a box, not a compression method: what decides how a video looks and how large it is, is the codec stored inside, and these two boxes accept different ones.
This is a re-encode, not a repackage
Some tools can move a stream into a different container untouched when the codecs happen to line up. We do not — every job here is decoded and encoded again, so the conversion takes time in proportion to the length of the file and costs a small amount of quality even where a repackage would have been possible. In exchange the output is predictable: it plays everywhere, rather than inheriting whatever the source happened to contain.
What your AVI will contain
The output is MPEG-4 Part 2 video with MP3 audio — the codecs AVI was built around, both roughly a generation behind what an MP4 would give you. The video is encoded at a constant quality target rather than a fixed bitrate, so the size of the result follows the complexity of the footage rather than being decided in advance.
AVI costs you size and quality
MPEG-4 Part 2 is roughly a generation behind H.264, so an AVI will usually be larger than an MP4 of the same clip at the same quality — not smaller. AVI also has no proper support for chapters, subtitles or modern metadata. Convert to it when a piece of old software or hardware will read nothing else, not for quality, size or convenience.