mkv and avi

[natty]

is mkv a better format to use than avi and what results would I see in mkv

[Case]

It depends on usage.
If your hardware player support AVI but not MKV, then AVI would be better for that purpose, regardless of the wonderful things that can be done with the MKV format.

[natty]

ok many thanks for that. will convert mkv to avi

[jagabo]

MKV and AVI are containers. Will my VHS tape look better if I store it in a wooden box or a cardboard box? Of course, it doesn't matter what kind of box I store it in, the video will look the same when I play it.

MKV is a more modern container that was designed from the ground up to handle a much wider variety of contents. AVI was originally spec'd 20 years ago when audio and video was pretty simple on computers. Although the spec has been updated since (ODML extensions), and the basic structure (RIFF chunks) is very extensible (for example Divx Corp has added chapters, subtitles, etc.), there is no longer any controlling body to standardize new extensions (Microsoft has abandoned the format, preferring their patented WMA/WMV/ASF containers). So AVI remains limited in what it can contain. On the other hand, that makes it much easier to deal with so it's easier to make hardware that handles it. And MKV didn't really gain traction until the last few years.

What determines the quality is what's inside the containers, the propties of the audio and video, and the codecs used to compress them. Many video and audio codecs can easily be transferred from one container to the other, re-multiplexed, or re-muxed, without any change to the audio and video data.