Convert AVI to MOV Audio Video Interleave ↔ QuickTime Movie Free Online Secure
Your AVI is opened here in your browser and its picture and sound are moved into a MOV container. When MOV accepts what was inside — which it usually does — nothing is re-encoded, so nothing is lost and it takes seconds.
Convert your file
Drop an AVI here, or choose one.
Your file never leaves this device. Everything runs in your browser.
Nothing uploaded
Where these formats come from
AVI is Microsoft's container from 1992, built when video was something you played from a CD-ROM. MOV is Apple's, a year older, and it was so well designed that the MP4 format the whole world now uses was built directly on it. FLV was Macromedia's, later Adobe's: it carried almost all internet video for a decade and disappeared with Flash at the end of 2020. The word that matters here is container. None of these three is a way of compressing video; each is a box that holds video compressed by something else, alongside the sound and the subtitles. That distinction explains most of the surprises on this page.
Where you meet them
AVI survives in old camera footage, in archives and in software that was written in the nineties and never replaced. MOV comes out of iPhones and Macs and is the working format of a great deal of video editing. FLV is almost entirely a legacy: files downloaded or recorded before 2020 that nothing modern will open. Converting between them is usually about making an old recording playable again, or handing a file to a program that insists on one particular box.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between a container and a codec?
The container is the box — AVI, MOV, MP4 — and the codec is how the pictures inside were compressed — H.264, MPEG-4, and others. A file called .avi tells you almost nothing about what is inside it. This is why one AVI plays and another does not, although both have the same extension: the player understands the box but not the codec within. It is also why converting between containers is sometimes instant and sometimes slow — in the first case only the box is being changed.
Why won't my old FLV files play any more?
Because the software that played them was Flash, and Flash was switched off at the end of 2020 and removed from every browser. The files themselves are intact; what has gone is the thing that knew how to open them. Converting to a modern container is the way to get them back, and it is worth doing before the tools that still understand FLV become scarce as well.
Does the file lose quality?
It depends on what the two formats can hold. Converting between formats that store the same thing — a PNG to a BMP, a WAV to a FLAC — loses nothing. Converting into a format that throws information away to save space, such as JPEG or MP3, loses a little every time, and converting back does not bring it back. Where a choice exists, this page errs towards keeping the original quality rather than making the smallest file.
Is my file uploaded anywhere?
No. The conversion happens inside your browser, on your own machine; the file never leaves it and there is no server here that could receive it. That is why a large file is limited by your own memory rather than by an upload, and why nothing you convert can appear in anybody's logs — including ours. The audio and video tools do fetch their conversion engine from this site the first time you use them, some thirty megabytes once; after that the work still happens entirely on your machine.
Why people convert AVI to MOV
AVI is the video format of an earlier era of personal computing: home videos exported from old camcorders, films downloaded in the early 2000s, clips made with Windows software, archives built over many years on Windows computers. MOV is the format of the Apple world: the format of QuickTime, of Mac and iPad editing programs and of recordings made on iPhones. When an AVI has to go from the first world to the second, to be edited on a Mac, played on an iPad, shown in a presentation or handed to someone who works with Apple tools, the practical step is to convert AVI to MOV.
The situations are everyday ones. A home video from an old camcorder that you now want to cut on your Mac. A clip that your iPad refuses to play. A film that a collaborator wants for an Apple-based editing project. A recording to put into a Keynote presentation. In each case the picture and sound are fine, and the container is what blocks you. Converting AVI to MOV changes the container, and in most cases leaves the contents untouched.
This page converts AVI to MOV in your browser. Your video is not uploaded to a server, which matters for family footage and private recordings. Below you will find how the conversion works, why it is usually fast and lossless, when it is not, and what to know about the converter itself.
How the conversion works
The container is rewritten, not the video
A video file has two layers. Inside are the picture and the sound, each stored in a particular coded form. Around them is a container, such as AVI or MOV, which holds the two together and tells a player how to play them. Here, your AVI is opened in your browser and its picture and sound are moved into a MOV container. When MOV accepts what was inside, which it usually does, nothing is re-encoded, so nothing is lost and it takes seconds.
Why it is so fast
Because nothing needs to be re-encoded, the work is little more than copying. Re-encoding is slow and demanding; copying into a new container is quick. A film of an hour or more can be moved in seconds, because the converter does not touch the pictures, only their packaging.
What AVI usually holds
Most AVI files today contain video compressed with DivX or Xvid, with sound compressed as MP3 or a similar method. MOV is flexible about what it holds and often accepts such contents without change. When it does not, the converter re-encodes into a form that it does accept, and you will notice it from the longer time the job takes.
What is kept
The picture and the sound exactly as they were
When you convert AVI to MOV here, the picture and the sound are kept exactly as they were, whenever the destination accepts them. The video is not recompressed, softened or resized. What you see in the MOV is what was in the AVI, frame for frame.
Length, frame size and frame rate
The length, the frame size and the frame rate are untouched. A film of an hour stays an hour, a picture of 720 by 576 stays 720 by 576, and the movement stays at its original speed.
What may cost you something
When MOV will not take what the AVI held
Sometimes MOV will not accept the coded form of the picture or sound that the AVI contains. In that case, the video is re-encoded, which means decoded and compressed again in a form MOV accepts. Re-encoding always costs a little quality, and it takes longer than simply moving the contents. The converter handles it automatically.
Subtitles and chapter marks
Subtitles and chapter marks are not carried over. If your AVI came with a separate subtitle file, it will not be merged into the MOV, and any markers inside the file are not preserved. Keep the original and the subtitle file together if you need them.
The converter is fetched the first time
The converter itself is not part of the page. It is fetched the first time you use one of these video pages, about nine megabytes, once. After that it stays in your browser, and later conversions start straight away. On a slow connection the first use takes longer, and offline you must have loaded it once before.
Long films on phones and tablets
Everything runs on your own device, so a long film on a phone or tablet may run out of memory before it finishes. If that happens, try on a computer, or cut the video into shorter parts first.
What AVI and MOV are
AVI, Audio Video Interleave, dates from the early 1990s. It became the standard container for video on Windows, and it can hold many kinds of picture and sound, which is why it survived so many generations of software. MOV was created for Apple's QuickTime and became the native container of video on Macs, iPhones and iPads. It too can hold many kinds of content, and professional editing programs on all platforms read it. Both are old and flexible, which is exactly why one can usually be poured into the other without re-encoding.
When you convert AVI to MOV, you move a video from the container of the Windows world to the container of the Apple world. The picture and the sound inside do not need to change, so the job is usually quick and lossless. That is the great virtue of the approach: it keeps what you have and changes only how it is wrapped.
Why the same codecs can live in both
A container does not dictate how the picture is compressed. The same compression method can sit in an AVI or in a MOV, and a player that understands the method can play it from either. That is why moving the contents is possible: the compression has not changed, only the box. The conversion therefore does not need to touch the video itself, which is why it takes seconds.
Home videos and old camcorder footage
Many people have boxes of footage from old camcorders, transferred to a computer years ago and saved as AVI. Those clips matter: birthdays, holidays, children when they were small. Now that so much editing is done on Macs and iPads, the question arises how to bring them into a modern project. Converting AVI to MOV is the simplest answer: the clip moves into a container that the editor loves, and its quality is exactly what it was.
Old camcorder footage is often small, of low resolution and interlaced, which means that the picture is stored as alternating lines and may show combing on fast movement when played on a modern screen. The conversion does not change this: it moves the video as it is. If you want to clean it up, do so in your editor, where deinterlacing and scaling options exist.
Keeping a family archive in good order
If you are converting a collection, work in a systematic way: one folder per year or event, files named with the date and the subject, originals kept apart from converted copies. When you convert AVI to MOV for the whole archive, you end up with a second, Apple-friendly set. Back both up. A collection that exists in two formats in two places is far more likely to survive.
Editing on a Mac or an iPad
Apple's own editing programs, and many professional ones, work best with MOV. They accept other formats too, often by converting them in the background, which can be slow and can produce surprises. If you hand them MOV from the start, the clips arrive ready to use. That is why many editors convert AVI to MOV as a first step in a project, before anything else is done.
If you will be adding titles, effects and music, it is also wise to check the frame rate of your clips. If they differ from your project's, the editor may adjust them. The conversion keeps each clip's own rate, so you decide how to match them in the editor, with full knowledge of what each clip is.
Mixing AVI clips with phone footage
If you are combining old AVI clips with new iPhone recordings, which are MOV, converting the old ones first gives you a consistent set in one container. The shapes and sizes will still differ, since old footage is smaller, but at least the files behave the same way in the editor.
How to convert AVI to MOV here
Add your video
Drop the AVI onto the page or pick it from your device. It is opened inside your browser and is not uploaded.
Let it finish
Press the button. If the contents can simply be moved, it takes seconds. If they must be re-encoded, it takes longer. Leave the page open until it is done.
Download and check
Download the MOV and open it in QuickTime or your editing program. Watch the beginning, a bit from the middle and the end. Check that sound and picture stay together and that the length is the same.
Questions people ask before converting
Will the quality drop?
Usually not. When MOV accepts what the AVI held, nothing is re-encoded. If re-encoding is needed, a little quality is given up.
Why did it take only a few seconds?
Because only the container was rewritten, not the video itself.
Will it play on my Mac and iPad?
MOV is their home format, so the container is right. If the codec inside is one Apple's software does not know, it may not play; a re-encode into a compatible form solves that.
Is my video uploaded?
No. Everything runs in your browser and the video never leaves your device.
Who converts AVI to MOV
Mac users with Windows-era archives
Old films and home videos become playable and editable in Apple's tools.
Video editors on Apple software
Editing programs on the Mac accept MOV readily, so an AVI clip can go into a project.
Presenters
Presentation software on Apple devices plays MOV directly, which makes an old clip usable in a talk.
Common mistakes
Deleting the original
Keep the AVI until you have checked the MOV in the program that matters.
Converting in chains
Each re-encode costs quality. Convert once from the original.
Closing the page too soon
A long film takes time. Leave the page open until the download is ready.
Related tools
To go the other way, convert MOV to AVI. For Flash-era clips, FLV to MOV and FLV to AVI work in the same way, and AVI to FLV and MOV to FLV cover the last pairings, though FLV is a dead format. For the sound alone, WAV to MP3 and MP3 to M4A change the audio format.
When to convert AVI to MOV, and when not to
Converting is right when an AVI will not open where you need it, particularly on Apple devices or in Apple-based editing software. It is the wrong move when your current player opens the AVI perfectly and you have no need to move it, and it is unnecessary if the destination accepts AVI and you are happy with that.
For the common cases, such as home videos, old films and clips for editors, it is quick, private and dependable to convert AVI to MOV in the browser. Your original is never changed, so you can come back and convert AVI to MOV again whenever you like.
Batches of videos
If you have many clips to convert, do them one at a time and keep the originals in a separate folder. Try one first and check it in the player or editor you will use. When you convert AVI to MOV in bulk, consistency matters more than speed.
If a file takes a long time
A conversion that takes minutes, not seconds, means the video is being re-encoded because MOV would not take what the AVI held. That is normal. Leave the page open and let it finish, then watch the result carefully, since re-encoding costs a little quality.
Checking the result properly
After you convert AVI to MOV, play the MOV from the beginning, jump to the middle and watch the end. Check that sound and picture stay together, that the length is the same and that the picture looks as it did. If something is wrong, the original is untouched, so you can try again.
A simple routine to convert AVI to MOV well
Test whether the AVI plays in the program you need. If not, convert AVI to MOV, one clip first. Play the result in QuickTime or your editor. If it works, convert the rest and rename the files clearly. Keep the AVI originals in an archive folder. This routine takes a few minutes for a handful of clips, and it works whether you convert AVI to MOV once a year or every week.
Your video stays on your device
The conversion happens locally. Your video is opened by your own browser, moved into a new container there and handed back. Nothing is uploaded, so there is no copy on a server and no one else who could watch it. For family footage and private recordings, that is the safe way to convert AVI to MOV.
A worked example
Say you have a home video from 2006, an AVI of 700 megabytes, and you want to make a family film on your Mac. Your editor will not import it. You drop it here and press the button. In a few seconds you download a MOV of about the same size, with the same length, picture and sound. You import it into the editor, and it appears on the timeline like any other clip. The AVI stays in your archive.
Keeping two copies of an old collection
When you convert AVI to MOV for an archive of home films, think of the result as a second copy, not a replacement. The AVI remains the original, with every frame as the camcorder captured it. The MOV is the working copy for your Mac or iPad. Keep both, in separate folders, on separate disks if you can. If a future program reads one format better than the other, you will have the choice, and if one disk fails, the other copy survives.
For the sound of old recordings, you may also want a separate audio copy for listening, which you can make with MP3 to WAV or FLAC to MP3 after extracting it. And if some clips in your collection are Flash-era files, FLV to AVI brings them into the same family before you convert AVI to MOV as a batch. A tidy, consistent archive is a gift to your future self.
Before you close the page
Check that you downloaded the MOV, that it plays in QuickTime or your editor, and that you kept the original AVI.
Summary
To convert AVI to MOV here, drop the video and press the button. The picture and sound are moved into a MOV container, and when MOV accepts what was inside, which it usually does, nothing is re-encoded, so nothing is lost and it takes seconds. Length, frame size and frame rate are untouched. Where MOV will not take what the AVI held, the video is re-encoded, which costs a little quality. The converter is fetched the first time, about nine megabytes, once. Nothing leaves your device.