How do AVI and FLVcompare? Here's everything you need to know to choose the right format — and how to convert between them.
Audio Video Interleave
AVI is one of the oldest and most recognized video formats. While it has been largely superseded by MP4 and MKV, AVI files are still commonly found in legacy video libraries and older applications.
Flash Video
FLV was the dominant web video format during the Flash era. While Flash is dead, FLV files still exist in archives and legacy systems. Converting FLV to MP4 is one of the most common conversion needs.
| Specification | AVI | FLV |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Audio Video Interleave | Flash Video |
| Extension | .avi | .flv |
| MIME type | video/x-msvideo | video/x-flv |
| Category | Video | Video |
| Developer | Microsoft | Adobe (Macromedia) |
| Year introduced | 1992 | 2003 |
AVI and FLV target different use cases. AVI is ideal for legacy video archives, while FLV works best for converting old web videos.
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