Multimedia & Graphics: About Distributing Your AVI Movies

Summary : To meet the ever-increasing demand for multimedia-rich web design, AVI is a popular format. Some preparation is needed to ready an AVI for use on the web, however.

To meet the ever-increasing demand for multimedia-rich web design, AVI is a popular format to use. Some preparation is needed to ready an AVI for use on the web, however.

AVI Compression

An AVI movie can be compressed using different video codecs. File compression is necessary to reduce the movie's file size, and make it more practical for online use. Without file compression, copying or transferring the AVI from one device to another is a complicated or unnecessarily difficult step. This is especially relevant if the AVI is to be accessed online, where long downloading times could cost website traffic. Online audiences want multimedia experiences, but they want them quickly. A successful multimedia web design keeps this in mind at all times.

If you wish to view the AVI movie on your PC, you will need the codec used to compress it installed on that PC. For that matter, you always need the same codec to compress and decompress, not only an AVI, but any other movie format as well.

There are some codecs which you can use that preserve your AVI's quality as much as possible. Many codecs degrade the visual quality as part of the file compression/decompression process. TSCC, however, is one choice that allows you to compress, transfer and decompress your movie without sacrificing too much of its quality.

Audio Data

AVI format includes more than a visual element. Audio data is also included within an AVI, making it a particularly effective multimedia choice. The audio data, however, occupies much more space than the video in AVI format. This way, it is very important that your movie's audio data is carefully compressed, as well as the video data, or otherwise it could occupy much more space than you would have thought.

If you do not know which audio codec to choose for your audio AVI file, MPEG Layer 3 is one of the most advisable choices. This codec compresses by converting the audio file into a much smaller file without losing much of its quality. Note, however, it will not be exactly the same prior to file compression. There also are other good codecs, but due to the high file size, each would degrade audio quality in a more pronounced fashion.

Viewing Your AVI

One of the main advantages of AVI files is that they can be viewed via many different players. Some video formats, however, only function with specific ones. If you store or distribute your own movie in AVI format, it could be seen in Real Player, Camtasia Player, Media Player and QuickTime. It is a recommended multimedia web design practice to include this information on the page where your AVI file is accessed by audience members.

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