why canon didn't use MPEG format for movies?

[xzli]

Generally speaking, Canon produce very good camera. But in movies mode, canon use AVI rather than MPEG. Imagine a scenario, if you want to collect all your movies clip and merge together to burn a video CD to be viewed later either in computer or VCD compatible DVD player. In this case MPEG format get clear advantage. I wonder why canon didn't provide this format, while Sony use this format for a long time. Does Mpeg format require more computing powder than AVI format? or there is other factor affect canon engineer to adopt Mpeg format?

[dwig]

It varies with which MPEG version and which CODEC is used for the AVI but in general, MPEG tends to require noticably more computer effort than some of the easier to compile AVI variants.

[Alnath]

AVI is not compressed and therefore needs no effort to write.