A Bit of History

The history of AVI files is quite interesting. Like many good things that have come out of the entertainment industry, the technology involving AVI files was originally created by video professionals in an effort to make editing analog videos easier.

In a typical situation, someone filming a TV show (for example) would film the show using analog video, then use a special computer to convert the analog video to an AVI file. He or she would then edit the digital AVI file (which is infinitely easier than cutting tape!). The AVI file would then be converted back to analog video and we would all be watching Melrose Place.

AVI Files and the Internet?

The AVI format is well suited to the aforementioned type of work, but NOT to the limitations of networking via the Internet.

AVI files are designed to provide high quality (perfect) video and contain many frames per second. The real difficulty of this is that an AVI clip that is only a few seconds long, is thousands of megs on disk, which makes AVI files virtually useless in terms of LIVE video streaming via the Internet.

You Have Options

If you are talking about AVI files and the Internet, you have two main options.

1. The most common use of AVI files over the Internet is to provide users the ability to download the files via FTP and then run the files locally (from their own machines). If this option is not for you -- you want to give users the opportunity to view AVI files LIVE, you have an alternative.

2. Typically, if you want to use AVI files for web streaming, you must convert these files to a more manageable format, one that has less frames per second (if fact, it is possible to get down to only 1 or 2 frames per second). Doing so brings the overall file size down to something that doesn't take three years to load.

Converting AVI Files

Converting AVI files to a more Internet-friendly format is a challenging (but manageable) task. To accomplish this, you need one of many available software packages that converts an AVI file to a series of individual frames (JPEGs or GIFs). You then go through the file manually and 'drop' as many frames as possible while still preserving a coherent flow to the animation. When you are finished with this process, you just put the frame back together using one of several formats.

The formats of choice are generally as follows:

• MOV file
• QuickTime file
• GIF animation file
• MOV and QuickTime Files

Both QuickTime and MOV files are the favorite movie formats for Macintosh and IBM. These file formats are similar to AVI files, but they hold less frames per second, in general. With the necessary plug-in, Internet browsers run these animations right in the browser window, and not as a separate downloadable function. So users can view the animation without running a separate application.

Both of these types of files also work well when you have large AVI files that you want people to be able to view outside of the page. Just remember that users need to have the necessary plug-in or player.

GIF Animation Files

GIF animations are actually the most common form of animation files because they work on almost any Internet browser. With GIF animations, you use a special piece of software to assemble the stack of frames in the order you want and you actually tell the computer how long to sit on each frame. Users view the animation through their Internet browser which displays the animation just like the old Micky mouse cartoons by rifling through the stack at the speed you designate.

GIF animation is ideal when you are working with short clips that you want people to view right in the page. This way, they do not have to use a plug-in.