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MOV
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AVI

MOV to AVI Converter — Free, Online, No Upload

Old Windows video software won't touch MOV files — AVI is the safe fallback that's been compatible since Windows 3.1.

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Need the reverse?AVI → MOV

How to convert MOV to AVI online

  1. 1

    Drop your MOV file

    Drag your QuickTime Movie file onto the box above, or click it to pick a file.

  2. 2

    Wait a few seconds

    Conversion starts on its own and runs on your device, not on a server.

  3. 3

    Download your AVI

    Click Download to save the Audio Video Interleave file.

MOV vs AVI: format overview

MOV

QuickTime Movie

Apple · 1991

Compression
lossy
Transparency
No
  • ✓ High quality, preferred by Apple ecosystem
  • ✓ Supports ProRes codec for editing
  • ✗ Poor Windows/Android compatibility without QuickTime
AVI

Audio Video Interleave

Microsoft · 1992

Compression
lossy
Transparency
No
  • ✓ Universal Windows compatibility
  • ✓ Simple container format — widely supported

MOV magic bytes: 00 00 00 xx 66 74 79 70 71 74

AVI magic bytes: 52 49 46 46 xx xx xx xx 41 56 49 20

Why convert MOV to AVI?

Your MOV video won't open in the Windows software you're using — an older version of Sony Vegas, VirtualDub, Windows Movie Maker, or a legacy DVD authoring tool. These applications predate or exclude QuickTime support, and MOV is QuickTime's container. AVI has been Microsoft's video standard since 1992 and is the format these older tools understand without installing plugins or codec packs.

AVI (Audio Video Interleave) is one of the most universally recognized container formats in video history. Every Windows video application, no matter how old, can open an AVI file. Legacy hardware encoders, older capture cards, and vintage DVD authoring software all work with AVI. If your workflow involves tools more than five years old, or if a client is using software from an era before MP4 became universal, AVI is frequently the safe choice.

Converting MOV to AVI requires full transcoding — the video and audio are both re-encoded, which introduces some quality loss. Use a high bitrate (8–15 Mbps for HD content) to keep visible artifacts minimal. The output will be H.264 video in an AVI container with MP3 audio — a combination that every AVI-capable tool handles cleanly. Note that AVI files tend to be significantly larger than equivalent MP4 or MOV files at comparable quality.

Quality & file size: MOV to AVI

Typical sizes (1 minute 1080p): MOV 150–500 MB → AVI 200–600 MB.

Frequently asked questions

Why doesn't old Windows software open MOV files?
MOV is Apple's QuickTime format and requires QuickTime Player (or compatible codec) to decode on Windows. Software built before QuickTime for Windows became common — or after Apple discontinued it — won't open MOV natively.
Does MOV to AVI reduce video quality?
Re-encoding always introduces some quality loss. The converter uses a fixed high-quality level for the Xvid-style video and 192 kbps MP3 sound, so for most content the difference is hard to see. Expect the AVI to be larger than the MOV.

Your MOV file never leaves this tab — FormatDrop has no endpoint that receives file data. How it works