Audio Video Interleave (AVI) is a special case of the Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF) and is the most commonly used format for audio and video data for PCs. An AVI format file can be compressed or uncompressed, and used as a movie file.
AVI movie files come in many different formats and use a specific compressed format contained within an application extension called a codec (coder/decoder). The files can be compressed or uncompressed with any one of hundreds of codecs. You can use any codec installed on your machine. The Report Wizard enables you to create an AVI movie by using the more common codecs or compressors.
The video data in an AVI file can be formatted and compressed in a variety of ways. Most users will find they have at least one of the standard Microsoft codecs installed on their machine, for example, Microsoft® supply Microsoft Video 1.
Alternatively, if you do not have a default codec to view AVI Report files, you can download it from the Microsoft Download Center. When a new codec is downloaded and installed, it will automatically be available for selection in the Select compressor dialog, which appears when an AVI file is created.