How can I compress a large video file?

[sugara69]

How can I manually compress a large video file say 5 GB or so, so it will fit on a standard 4.7 GB DVDr, without having to buy a pricey dual layer disc. Is there any good programs that will do this?

[steve2713]

https://www.videohelp.com/guides

Knock yourself out

[johns0]

Rejig.

[Cunhambebe]

Have you already searched around here?
Well, anyway, here's one way......
Use DVD Shrink; on Compression Settings, choose Automatic. Check out the compression rate, for instance 80% - that means the compression is at 20% and the original size would be at 80%. Sometimes you can get good results even at a compression rate of 35% (65% original size). Please note if you're watching the video on a good 16:9 monitor, anyone will notice the compression, that's why I think compression works up to 20%. Anything more than that is asking for trouble; in this case re-author with DVD Shrink and split the movie on 2 discs...You can even present a fancy VOB file as the end of disc one > "please insert disc 2" or something like that.

[johns0]

Use dvdshrink if the video file has been authored to dvd files,wont work with mpg files.

[Cunhambebe]

Thanks for your note. That's absolutely true (but I think he's talking about a VOB file).
Just in case: if it's an MPEG2 file, you have to re-compress it with Vegas or TMPGEnc, even though both are more expensive than any dual layer media. You can also recompress the file with Canopus Procoder. There's an option to encode directly as VOB; same problem about the price, though.

[steve2713]

BTW, I just pointed him to the guides because he never did say what file format he's working with. He's probably working with some for of MPG2 DVD Video as you guys assumed, but for all I know he has an AVI or something else.

[Cunhambebe]

Just a note here:

but for all I know he has an AVI or something else

As far as I know if you compress a 5 GB AVI as MPEG2, it's going to be much, much smaller and will certainly fit on that 4.7 GB disc.

[steve2713]

Just a note here:

but for all I know he has an AVI or something else

As far as I know if you compress a 5 GB AVI as MPEG2, it's going to be much, much smaller and will certainly fit on that 4.7 GB disc.

Huh? What's your point? Of course it can be compressed in size, so can any MPG2 file or any other format for that matter. My point is, he never clarified what he's working with. He's probably working with MPG2 I'm guessing, but if he's working with an AVI or something else he's obviously not going to be able to use DVD Shrink.....

[Gurm]

Uhh... a 5GB AVI, encoded as MPEG2, will likely be 10GB or more. Just so we're clear, XVID/DIVX are MUCH HIGHER COMPRESSION RATIOS than DVD.

But my suggestion? Burn it to a dual-layer disc, then put the dual layer disc under something REALLY HEAVY to compress it to the same thickness as a single layer!

[MOVIEGEEK]

This tool is good at compressing.
Seriously,if it's an AVI or MPEG use an encoder such as TDA.If it's DVD files use DVDShrink,if it's a VOB use IFOEdit to create IFO and BUP files then use DVDShrink.

[Richard_G]

Uhh... a 5GB AVI, encoded as MPEG2, will likely be 10GB or more. Just so we're clear, XVID/DIVX are MUCH HIGHER COMPRESSION RATIOS than DVD.

Who said anything about XVid or DivX, DV .avi is 13GB per hour so a 5GB file would be about 23 minutes. 23 minutes of DVD compliant mpeg2 at 9000kbs would around 2GB.

But, as has already been mentioned, he hasn't specified what format the file is so nobody can answer the question.

How can you manually compress a large file? Try putting it on the floor and stamping on it.........