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status of this document: work in progress
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Table of Contents
- ! work in progress ! -
Last updated: Jun 1st 1999
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 Basic
Description
AVIs are Microsoft's approach to storing movies.
It uses the RIFF format to store information in
a tree structure. Both audio and video data are encoded using the Windows'
installable codecs. |
Basic
File Format
Basic RIFF File Layout.
RIFF: AVI
LIST: hdrl
avih
LIST: strl
strh
strf
strd (optional)
strn (optional)
LIST: movi
LIST: rec_ chunks 1..n
##xx data chunks where ##
is the stream number
##xx data chunks where ##
is the stream number
idx1
Structure of the
'avih' AVI header chunk.
Structure of the
required 'strh' stream header chunk.
vids: Video Stream
- RLE
- iv32
auds: Audio Stream
Structure of the
required 'strf' stream format chunk.
Structure of the
optional 'strd' chunk.
Structure of the
optional 'strn' stream name chunk.
ASCII name of stream. "C-style" last byte
zero.
Structure of the
'rec ' chunk.
Structure of the
'idx1' header chunk.
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Portability
Encoding AVIs on other platforms than MS-Windows
can already be a tedious task, but trying to play/open files is next to
impossible, due to the large number of codecs that could be used. It has
been tried before (I've seen a DOS-Player somewhere), but once it comes
to undocumented codecs ..... that's it.
But then again, why should Microsoft use
a portable format? |
Trademarks,
Patents and Royalties
To my knowledge: none.
Note that the format of certain chunks
contained in RIFFs may very well be patented. A number of video and audio
codecs are based of patents. If any of the more popular codecs belong to
this group is beyond my knowledge.
(please read the disclaimer) |
Cross-Checking
Software
This section is for programmers, who wish
to cross-check their implementation with others. This is an incomplete
list of programs, which are available as freeware / shareware / try-before-buy
etc.
The following software is able to decode
AVIs:
The following software is able to encode AVIs
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Paper
Resources
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Disclaimer
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This is not the official format documentation.
Although we're doing our best to keep this information as accurate as possible,
there is no way of checking all of it under all possible circumstances.
We're not taking any responsibility for the results of this information
or lack thereof. The 'trademarks, patents and royalties' section is here
just for your convenience, and is in no way complete. Please send us a
note, if you find any incorrect of missing information to fileformats@daubnet.com.
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