Well, here's what I need .avi for: I need to put a series of scenes together in a video mixing software such as Video Pad and then turn it into a video that can easily be uploaded to youtube without reducing quality. I don't think going for a .mov would be a good idea. I want uncompressed .avi and I could obtain that from Corel but since I plan on making 1024 images, importing and compiling a movie would probably take ages. (not sure, haven't tried it yet) And I'd have to select each separate image file that Maya has exported too.

I have batch-rendered to avi before with Maya Software and it worked quite well except for 1 miscalculation near the end of the movie, where the ball in a ping-pong scene went through the table and one racket just went into the ceiling.