Can i compress a

[YOURCONNEXX]

MPEG file to a lesser size... (like say 2 gigs to 400mb) but still have a good quality picture... what software should i use??

[lordsmurf]

You can't. Re-encoding and lowering bitrate loses quality, end of story.

Exactly how long is it, what exactly is the source length and resolution, and what exact size do you need it and why?

There might be some solutions.

[CobraPilot]

"Good quality picture" is in the eye of the beholder. Or, to borrow from Chubby Checker's "Limbo Rock": How LOW can you go?

If you're willing to change the format from MPEG, you have several options, including DivX, Xvid, Nero Digital, etc.

My own "eye of the beholder" impressions are that 90-minute's worth of high-quality digital, when recoded by Nero Recode to Nero Digital to fit on a 700-mb CDR, is virtually indistinguishable from the original quality on my 42" TV.

Your mileage may vary . . .

AND, AFAIK, there's only one DVD player brand sold in the US that will play Nero Digital, from www.avayon.com.

[YOURCONNEXX]

You can't. Re-encoding and lowering bitrate loses quality, end of story.

Exactly how long is it, what exactly is the source length and resolution, and what exact size do you need it and why?

There might be some solutions.

well they're from my sons football games...each game is about 15 minutes long after i edit it........ i use a fire wire to connect the camcorder to my pc and then each game is about 2.5 gigs in avi files which is cool but of course i cant fit 8 different games onto even a dvd 9 .... so i have to use a lesser screen resolution when i render the edited games (i edit with sony vegas) to make them all fit onto a dvd....

so how do those big companies fit all that stuff they have onto those retail dvd's ?????

[mats.hogberg]

What you import is probably DV - 13 GB/hour.
You can get that down to a DVD-5 with good quality (as good as it's gonna get on Video DVD). That'd mean 4 games on a DVD-5, 8 on a dual layer DVD.

/Mats