Step 1: Supply your AVI files using the button above or by haul and lay.
Step 2: Click the 'Convert' button to start the conversion.
Step 3: Get your converted M4V files.
AVI to M4V Conversion FAQ
What does the AVI to M4V converter do?
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AVI is a legacy container, often poorly supported on modern devices. Converting to M4V rewraps the video with a current codec (H.264 / H.265 / VP9) for broad browser, phone, and TV compatibility.
Will resolution and frame rate be preserved in the M4V?
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Yes. AVI → M4V keeps resolution, frame rate, and aspect ratio unchanged by default. To change them, use the Resize or Speed tool on the result.
Will the AVI play smoothly on modern devices after converting to M4V?
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Yes. Legacy AVI files often fail to play in modern browsers and on iOS / Android. M4V uses widely supported codecs that play natively on phones, tablets, smart TVs, and every modern browser.
Will the converted M4V be a different size than the AVI?
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Modern codecs compress better, so M4V from a legacy AVI is typically 30-60% smaller at equivalent quality. Conversions in the opposite direction can grow the file.
My AVI footage shows comb lines on movement — will that carry into the M4V?
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It will unless you deinterlace, and AVI content very often is interlaced because the format comes from the broadcast and DVD era. Interlaced frames store two half-height fields captured a fiftieth of a second apart; on a progressive-scan phone or monitor that reads as horizontal combing on anything that moves. Turn on the deinterlace option and the encoder weaves the fields into whole progressive frames before writing the M4V. AVI is Microsoft’s Audio Video Interleave, introduced in 1992 on top of the RIFF chunk format — one of the oldest containers still in circulation.
My AVI recordings are split into numbered parts — does M4V have the same limit?
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No, and that is one of the better reasons to move. The AVI container has a practical single-file ceiling that long or high-bitrate recordings run straight into, which is exactly why old captures arrive as part1, part2, part3. M4V has no equivalent limit, so the pieces can be rejoined into one continuous file. AVI has no native support for modern codecs, variable frame rate, soft subtitles or files over 4 GB without hacks, and its per-chunk overhead bloats the file.
Can I add selectable subtitles once the file is M4V?
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Yes. AVI has no usable soft-subtitle track, so subtitles for AVI content had to be burned into the picture or shipped as a separate sidecar file. M4V carries subtitles as their own selectable stream, so after conversion you can attach an SRT track the viewer can switch on, switch off or restyle. Structurally an M4V is an MP4 — H.264 or HEVC with AAC — with optional Apple FairPlay DRM and iTunes chapter metadata.
Will the M4V I get back be locked to a store or an account?
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No, and the extension is what causes the confusion. M4V names a video file with the same internal structure as an ordinary MP4; the ones sold through a store are additionally wrapped in the seller's protection, and that wrapping is a property of the purchase rather than of the format. A file converted here has none of it — a plain, unprotected video that happens to carry that extension, playable wherever the extension is recognised and convertible onward as many times as you like. M4V is Apple’s variant of MP4, used by iTunes and the Apple TV app for films and TV episodes.
These AVI files came off an old camcorder — is anything special needed?
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Two things, both worth setting before you start. Tape-era cameras recorded interlaced fields and at a frame rate tied to the mains frequency where the camera was sold, so leaving deinterlacing off bakes comb lines into the M4V permanently, and letting the converter guess the rate can introduce a subtle judder on panning shots. Set both explicitly and the transfer is otherwise clean — the picture is what the tape held, which is the ceiling regardless of what it is converted into.
Does M4V support chapter markers that AVI did not?
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It does. M4V stores chapters as container metadata, so a long recording can be navigated by section instead of by scrubbing a progress bar. AVI has nowhere to put that information, so if the source shipped with a chapter list it was in a sidecar file — hand that to the converter and it gets written into the M4V. M4V keeps chapter markers, artwork and subtitle tracks in the shape the Apple TV app expects, which plain MP4 often loses.
Is there a file-size limit when converting AVI to M4V?
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Anonymous uploads are capped at a generous default; signed-in free accounts get a higher cap, and Pro accounts have no per-file limit. Browser memory is usually the practical constraint long before our server-side limits kick in.
Can I batch-convert several AVI files to M4V at once?
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Yes. Drop or pick multiple AVI files in one upload — the converter processes them in parallel and returns a ZIP of the M4V results. There is no need to repeat the upload step per file.
