Defined by Microsoft, AVI stands for Audio Video Interleave. It is a special case of the RIFF (Resource Interchange File Format). AVI is the most common format for audio/video data on the PC.
AVI is Microsoft's response to Apple's QuickTime technology. Early AVI files were limited on choice of video and audio codecs, quality, and resolution. However, with the introduction of DirectShow, AVI became a very flexible and powerful architecture. Some newer codecs including DivX and XviD enable AVI files to have similar or even better quality than DVD.
Quicktime is a multimedia development, storage, and playback technology from Apple. Quicktime files combine sound, text, animation, and video in a single file. Using a Quicktime player that either comes with a Web browser or can be downloaded from Apple or the browser company, you can view and control brief multimedia sequences.
As a multimedia stardand, QuickTime is not purely linear. It could contain interactivity and causes problems when converting to other video formats.
A lot of digital cameras record video in QuickTime support.
More information can be found on Apple's QuickTime page.
To encode QuickTime movies, you will need River Past MOV Booster Pack in addition to the video software. Don't forget to have the latest QuickTime installed.
River Past Video Cleaner