AV Files

What is a .AV file?

The .AV extension refers to files created by the discontinued Final Draft AV product of the 1990s from software company Final Draft, Inc. Files of such format were usually used in writing two column scripts in various formats of production - commercials, industrial videos, training and documentaries. File structure includes a text of a script together with various layout data like separate audio/video columns, scene headings, narration, page layouts or document attributes.

Second use case originates in the Commodore-Amiga and AmigaVision authoring software package and denotes files of projects and presentations for playback in this platform. Many files of this category contain IFF FORM signature bytes at offset 0.

Some DVR devices, capture solutions and some embedded devices use the .av filename for various kinds of media streams that can be either MPEG/H.264 streams together with compressed audio and/or custom formats.

It is possible to distinguish all the cases easily either through context use cases or using signature analysis. Most media files would be easily recognizable using standard MediaInfo and FFmpeg tools. Most AmigaVision files will usually contain FORM bytes when analyzed via a hex editor. And finally the Final Draft AV files usually open only in Final Draft-family programs and would appear most often in archives or migrations of materials from 1990s and 2000s production workflows, while AmigaVision files appear in old Amiga disk images, backups, or educational multimedia collections.

How to open a .AV file

Technical details

Final Draft AV is the format proprietary for Final Draft software. It is not publicly documented, i.e., neither the corresponding magic number nor structure description was registered. Identification can be based upon the capability of Final Draft to correctly open the file or presence of internal strings in addition to file extension or embedded application strings. The file type does not conform to plain UTF-8 text and can be called the binary type - the application structure is used to contain structured and possibly formatted text together with metadata.

The AmigaVision projects are files created for use in the Amiga environment with a lot of chance of using chunked IFF container. ASCII label FORM is used for indication of this container located at the offset of 0, and there are further chunks interpreted either by runtime environment and editor application. Chunk-oriented format implies Big-endianity of data: the 4-byte string chunk id followed by size 32 bit integer and chunk data where other chunks might be nested in the chunk as containers. The hex viewer could identify chunks as such because of readable ASCII strings but modern desktop applications do not know how to read those structures, hence why this kind of structure could appear unparseable for a modern viewer. Besides, AmigaV projects, there are proprietary audio and video files with AV extension, which are using their own structures: these files could contain elementary streams, program streams, raw frames, or vendor-private headers. There is no universal MIME type associated with AV, although unknown files could be marked as application/octet-stream whereas recognizable types are media with inner codecs specified.

Size varies depending on a particular type. Typically, Final Draft files have little size: only tens of kilobytes or maybe a few MBs. With increasing of content referenced by project (for example, images and sounds), AmigaVision projects could become bigger. Video recordings (.AV) could reach sizes hundreds or more megabytes. Metadata also differ by file type: script could contain authors', companies' information plus revision and production notes, Amiga Vision might include local paths or Amiga disk assigns, DVR and media could contain time stamp or channel info.

How to convert .AV files

In the case of files created in FD AV version, it will be wise to first open the AV file in the said software version and save it both into a PDF format that ensures preservation of the page image and line spacing while not being 100% secure regarding retaining script formatting as it depends on fonts used. Saving also as FDX or plain text would support future editing and indexing in this case, so both options need to be considered depending on the exact task.

In the case of AmigaVision projects, in most cases it will require to run the application under some sort of emulation software such as WinUAE, FS-UAE, vAmiga or Amiga Forever. Then either capture screenshots of its window or save video/other media output if any. Some project assets may prove usable as separate entities in case they are regular Amiga IFF ILBM images, 8SVX audio files, and others used within a project.

Regarding other media .AV files - start by using MediaInfo program to identify the file codecs and overall duration of its recording. In case of known codecs use FFmpeg command: ffmpeg -i input.av -c copy output.mkv,Copy in case compatibility with another software player such as VLC is required convert it into MP4 containing H.264 and AAC audio tracks. Encrypted or vendor indexed DVR recordings first will be decoded in vendor’s software and only after converted using mentioned command or even VLC player directly.

Common problems and fixes

Messages "Cannot open file" and "Unsupported file type," in Final Draft mean that .av is not a Final Draft AV file, the import filter is missing, or was saved by a very old Final Draft version that current software can’t recognize. Make sure to compare this file against some legitimate sample and try the desktop version of this application on Windows/MacOS platform and not its mobile equivalent, Final Draft Mobile - on iPhone OS.

When the output on opening a file via TextEdit/Notepad is garbled characters it means the file is a binary file for sure, being the Final Draft AV, IFF-based AmigaVision project or multimedia data.

When opening the file in VLC you get audio and no video or the error message "VLC could not identify the audio or video codec" VLC recognizes the format of your .av but not the codec, which is a nonpublic and unknown one most likely. Check the file in MediaInfo then try opening in other players like the official player by the vendor. When working with media streams make sure that there is no the FFmpeg related message like "Invalid data found when processing input": This error most likely means the .av file belongs to a document or project file, or the header doesn't match a known media container.

Problems to play an IFF-based AmigaVision project using WinUAE, FS-UAE, vAmiga, or Amiga Forever mean that there are problems with fonts, assigns, library, screen modes or the fact that linked files are missing. Try to reconstruct the original Workbench and the disk set-up.

The associations are mixed most likely due to similar extension names like AVI (video file), AV1 (video file). Please select File >Open in menu. Replacing .av extension name with other (like .avi .mp4, or .txt) is just renaming and doesn't change any bits inside. Zero byte files and other truncated files normally are impossible to restore their data; you need to obtain source scripts again and for media try the vendor support and repair.

Security considerations

Final Draft AV files are proprietary binary files and shouldn’t be used outside of a patched version of the Final Draft application. Complex file format parsers are known to have memory safety flaws in history. Be careful with your AV script files , such files contain private production, names of the client companies, schedules, creative non-released material, various annotations, author names, revisions and versions.

AmigaVision files can reference executables running on Amiga side as well as other scripts and applications, when played back via emulator software. Keep WinUAE, FS-UAE, vAmiga, or Amiga Forever isolated from host file shares unless access is required. Scan disk images and downloaded archives first, and disable automatic host-directory write access for Amiga emulator virtual drives (such access might be used by malware to plant additional copies on host computer). Media-type .AV files are usually passive streams. There were bugs caused by broken AV container formats. It’s preferable using VLC player or FFmpeg rather than old vendor software players (and especially older VLC player and FFmpeg version should not be used). Before opening an .AV file check its structure by file/media info tool or at least a hex-viewer software.

History and versions

Final Draft AV is one of the formats developed by Final Draft, Inc., originally designed to aid in the creation of scripts intended for audiovisual production, rather than for writing screenplays themselves. The Final Draft AV has enjoyed widespread use prior to broadband era for producing a two-column version of scripts for commercials, video, radio shows, and industrial projects, particularly when XML based exchanging was less popular. However, with later developments, the software shifted towards its flagship standard screenplay format products, namely FDR and newer FDX using XML and .AV became a legacy format in current iterations of Final Draft products.

The specifications of the Final Draft AV, similarly to that of AmigaVision (.AV) format itself, was never standardized by such institutions as ISO, ECMA, W3C or IETF. AmigaVision had the origins at Commodore-Amiga, Inc. releasing this visual multimedia authoring environment in 1990 for their computers; files from AmigaVision belonged to the larger family of Amiga IFF originating in Electronic Arts' Interchange File Formats of mid-1980s. In current times this format remains interesting mostly from a historical, retro-computing and museum perspective, being useful in the recovery of legacy education/kiosk projects. Media files (.AV) without connection to this format were never standardized and the extension may stand for any vendor-dependent term used on cameras/DVR devices/ embedded systems/recorders/etc.

Related formats

FDX is the XML format used by the script editing program Final Draft; it's easier than its legacy .AV format to look at via any text viewer, but a converted file will not capture all the details of layout of each column in Final Draft AV. The other older proprietary Final Draft screenwriting format, FDR focuses on screenplay files but not AV column scripts. Since not all collaborators have access to Final Draft program, it's common for RTF files and DOCX to be the file type to which an .AV can get converted so the files will open in Word and Writer; even then, these file types capture page design better than screenplay specifics. If you want to give your collaborators a guaranteed safe format that doesn't need any other software other than any standard computer OS viewing program, PDF will do. Common Amiga file format alongside AV include ILBM, 8SVX, and IFF. If .AV file has actual embedded media content, use AVI, MP4, MOV, or MKV. AV1 is a video codec name, typically stored in MP4, MKV, WebM, and IVF, whereas AVE is a file format used by ArcView Avenue scripts.