How do MOV and AVIcompare? Here's everything you need to know to choose the right format — and how to convert between them.
QuickTime Movie
MOV is Apple's video format, native to macOS and iOS. iPhones record video in MOV format by default. It supports high quality and professional features but works best within the Apple ecosystem.
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 While it has been largely superseded by MP4 and MKV, AVI files are still commonly found in legacy video libraries and older applications.
| Specification | MOV | AVI |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | QuickTime Movie | Audio Video Interleave |
| Extension | .mov | .avi |
| MIME type | video/quicktime | video/x-msvideo |
| Category | Video | Video |
| Developer | Apple | Microsoft |
| Year introduced | 1991 | 1992 |
MOV and AVI target different use cases. MOV is ideal for iphone and ipad video recording, while AVI works best for legacy video archives.
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