Free online AVC to AMV converter

Older MP4 players, portable media players, and some firmware accept AMV but not AVC/H.264 input. Converting the video requires decoding AVC and re-encoding it with AMV-compatible video dimensions, frame rate, and audio.

What the AVC format is

In the Video category, AVC usually means an H.264/AVC video stream. A file named .avc is often a raw, elementary H.264 stream without a container, timestamps, audio, or metadata; cameras, CCTV systems, capture software, and diagnostic video tools commonly produce this form. H.264 video can also be stored inside MP4, MKV, or TS files, so the .avc extension alone does not identify the complete file structure.

Raw AVC files may not open correctly until the decoder is told the recording frame rate. Use ffprobe input.avc to inspect a file, although a raw stream may provide little information beyond its codec.

What the AMV format is

AMV is a legacy Audio Video format used mainly by inexpensive portable media players, MP3 players with video playback, and older firmware. It is not the same as an ordinary MPEG-4 file renamed to .amv; compatible devices expect a particular AMV video stream, commonly with low resolutions such as 160×120 or 320×240, a low frame rate, and IMA ADPCM audio.

AMV's small files and low decoding requirements suit those devices, but its picture quality is substantially lower than H.264 at the same bitrate. Support is hardware-specific, and the correct resolution, frame rate, audio sample rate, and orientation depend on the player's manual or bundled conversion utility.

How to actually convert AVC to AMV

For a one-off conversion, you can upload the file to the free converter on 101convert.com, select AMV as the output format, start the conversion, and download the result. This avoids installing software, but uploading is unsuitable for confidential recordings and very large files.

For local batch processing, FFmpeg is the practical desktop option. If the AVC file is a normal container or FFmpeg recognizes it directly, use:

ffmpeg -i input.avc -map 0:v:0 -map 0:a:0? -c:v amv -s 160x120 -r 12 -pix_fmt yuvj420p -c:a adpcm_ima_amv -ar 22050 -ac 1 output.amv

If the file is a raw H.264 stream, specify its recording frame rate before the input. Replace 25 with the actual source rate:

ffmpeg -f h264 -framerate 25 -i input.avc -c:v amv -s 160x120 -r 12 -pix_fmt yuvj420p -c:a adpcm_ima_amv -ar 22050 -ac 1 output.amv

Raw AVC normally contains no audio. To create a silent AMV, remove the audio options and add -an:

ffmpeg -f h264 -framerate 25 -i input.avc -c:v amv -s 160x120 -r 12 -pix_fmt yuvj420p -an output.amv

If the target player requires audio, provide a separate audio file and map it explicitly:

ffmpeg -f h264 -framerate 25 -i input.avc -i soundtrack.wav -map 0:v:0 -map 1:a:0 -c:v amv -s 160x120 -r 12 -pix_fmt yuvj420p -c:a adpcm_ima_amv -ar 22050 -ac 1 output.amv

Quality and compatibility limits

Choose the AMV resolution from the player's specification rather than preserving the AVC dimensions. Unsupported dimensions can make the file fail to encode or fail to play; if the source has a widescreen aspect ratio, forcing 160x120 can stretch it. Use a pre-crop or aspect-ratio-preserving scale when distortion is unacceptable, for example -vf "scale=160:120:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=160:120:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2".

The conversion is lossy twice: H.264 is decoded, then the picture is encoded using AMV's low-efficiency codec. Keep the original AVC file for archiving. Test the output on the actual player because AMV implementations differ, particularly in accepted frame rates, audio presence, maximum file size, and whether the device expects a vertically flipped image.