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 MKV files.
AVI to MKV Conversion FAQ
What does the AVI to MKV converter do?
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AVI is a legacy container, often poorly supported on modern devices. Converting to MKV 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 MKV?
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Yes. AVI → MKV 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 MKV?
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Yes. Legacy AVI files often fail to play in modern browsers and on iOS / Android. MKV uses widely supported codecs that play natively on phones, tablets, smart TVs, and every modern browser.
Will the converted MKV be a different size than the AVI?
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Modern codecs compress better, so MKV 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 MKV?
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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 MKV. 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 MKV 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. MKV 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 MKV?
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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. MKV 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. MKV is codec-agnostic: H.264, HEVC, VP9 and AV1 video sit happily beside AAC, FLAC, Opus, DTS or Dolby audio in the same file.
Why do so many people keep their libraries in MKV?
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Because it was designed for keeping things rather than for delivering them. An MKV holds an unlimited number of audio tracks, selectable subtitle streams, chapter marks and cover art in one file, which is exactly what a disc rip needs somewhere to put — everything ends up in a single object instead of a folder of loose companions. The trade is playback: very little consumer hardware decodes it natively, so the same file that is ideal on a computer or a media server usually has to be converted again before a television will touch it. MKV is the archival container of choice because it stores unlimited audio tracks, soft subtitles, chapter markers and cover art in one file.
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 MKV 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 MKV support chapter markers that AVI did not?
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It does. MKV 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 MKV.
Is there a file-size limit when converting AVI to MKV?
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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 MKV 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 MKV results. There is no need to repeat the upload step per file.
