MPG 2 AVI lossless or almost lossless?

[RedPenguin]

Is there a program and/or set of codecs that I can easily convert my pretty big MPEG files to AVI without lossing much quality but making the files a tad bit smaller because 30GB MPEG files are both hard to edit and hard to open with most free editors but AVIs are hugely easier to edit.

[Nelson37]

Short answer - NO.

Avi files - note that the term "AVI file" is largely meaningless, it is like saying 'small car' - are generally easier to edit because they are LESS compressed than MPG.

A "lossless" or "nearly lossless" de-compression is going to result in a file something over 100 GB.

XVID, etc compression methods create large gaps between keyframes making for inaccurate editing, plus this will mean quality loss for the 2nd compression cycle, with further loss occurring on the 3rd compression cycle, assuming you will re-convert back to MPG.

Try VideoRedo, Womble, M2-Edit Pro, or TmpgEnc with Vdub for timecodes.

[manono]

A "lossless" or "nearly lossless" de-compression is going to result in a file something over 100 GB.

Hardly. Using Lagarith Lossless Video Codec, I get roughly 16-17 GB at 720x480 for every hour of video:

http://lags.leetcode.net/codec.html

On the main page of this site, under "Latest Video Tools", it's listed with some comments by other users.

I do agree that the programs you listed may allow him to edit without converting to AVI, depending, I guess, on exactly what he wants to do.

[RedPenguin]

Why would my videos in MPEG-VCR be linely and blurry even if they are not that way with other programs?

[Nelson37]

The 100 gig figure was based on the existing 30 gig mpg as a baseline, not as an hourly rate. Without additional information on bitrate and file runtime, the correct figure cannot be accurately calculated. This was a guess based on an approximation.

Need additional information regarding "liney and blurry". Post a pic would help. Also try one of the other programs I mentioned, you mention "other progs" but no names given. If "other progs" includes a similar MPG editor as the one with the issue, I would assume the problematic editor has an installation or codec-specific problem. If the "other progs" are playback or other types of software, then this provides very little useful info.

Some progs will not properly show audio synch. Some will screw up interlacing, some framerate, some Picture Quality, etc., etc. If you can edit in something else, then use that. Also what it looks like during the process is meaningless as long as the final outpur is OK.