Convert .AVI into .M4A Files - Fast, Free and Secure. We also have information of .AVI and .M4A Files extensions on this page.
- Information about AVI |
File extension |
avi |
File category |
Video |
Stands for |
Audio Video Interleave |
Developer |
Microsoft |
Overview |
This file format stores both audio and video files for playback purposes. It is used to store files that are of high quality as file compression is less in this extension. Windows OS uses this as the default format to store multimedia files but other operating systems such as Linux, Unix and Mac also support this. The data in it is encoded by various codecs such as DivX and XviD. There is a variety of software that support these files. For instance- Microsoft Movies & TV, Windows Media Player and Apple QuickTime player; etc. Due to its low compression ability, it is widely used to make short movies, promos and advertisements; etc. It should be noted that AVI format result in large files that is why it is rarely used for video streaming. |
Technical description |
In AVI extension, file's data is divided into blocks or chunks as it is a sub-format of RIFF(Resource Interchange file format). An identification of each chunk is done by FourCC tag. File header and metadata of video(like height, width and frame rate) are identified by ‘hdrl tag' which is sub-chunk and it is mandatory. There is one another chunk which is also obligatory that is ‘movi tag' and it has actual audio or video data. The last sub-chunk is ‘idx1 tag' and it records the offsets of the data chunks. This ‘idx1 tag' is completely optional. There is one limitation of this format that it does not contain variable bitrate data. |
Links |
wikipedia.org |
- Information about M4A |
File extension |
m4a |
File category |
Audio |
Stands for |
MPEG-4 PART 14 or MPEG-4 Audio |
Developer |
Apple |
Overview |
It is an audio file which uses AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) compression. Also, it is one of the formats of MPEG-4. It should be noted that MPEG-4 codec is used both for video and Audio. But M4A is specially designed by Apple for audio files only that is why it is used to store audiobooks, podcasts and songs. As sound files are encoded using AAC compression and this results in a reduction of file size and it also produces a very good quality of audio. Whenever somebody purchases music from the iTunes store then it is always available in this format. Many believe that MP4 and M4A are similar extensions, however, it’s not the truth. MP4 files can store both Audio and video files whereas the other one is entirely made for Audio files. |
Technical description |
These files are improved version of MP3 as it has the ability to store data without any loss. The audio files are completely reversible that is they can be inverted to their original copies with the same size. Besides this, these files does not have copyright protection whereas MP4 files are protected and they use DRM(Digital Rights Management) technology to enforce this protection policy. Due to this, one can copy these audio files effortlessly. These files have come with advanced features which include smaller sample block sizes, perception-based compression and bigger block sizes in stationary signals. There are a number of applications that support this extension. For example:- Microsoft Windows Media Player, VLC Media Player, Quicktime player, Microsoft Zune and Apple iTunes etc. |
Links |
wikipedia.org |