Xvid compression/clipping question

[Bleach Clean]

This seems to be the best sub-forum for this topic (may be a repeat, but couldn't find answer through search), but if I am wrong (this being my first post here), please let me know.

Here is my question:

I have an Xvid file that is 725 MB in size. I would like to either compress this to 650 MB, or cut out unimportant scenes within movie (if further compression is not an option). What program/method can I use here?

Thanx in advance for your help,

Bleach Clean

[mats.hogberg]

VirtualDub.
If you go for deleting unwanted parts, I think you can save "Direct Stream", not reencoding, and hence not losing quality.
Reencoding @ lower bitrate means lower quality (and not just because of the lower bitrate).

/Mats

[Bleach Clean]

Thanx Mats,

Here's an update:

- I actually had VirtualDub, prior to posting. The issue with it was that I didn't have a proper VFW XVID Codec that would satisfy opening the file with Virtual Dub. Meaning, I had an XVID codec, just not one that VirtualDub recognized.

- After posting, I was able to attain the necessary VFW XVID codec (Koepi v1.03), but when I opened the file, a "recommendation" message popped up:

Gist of the message reads:

1. VirtualDub has detected an improper VBR encoding in the source AVI file.
2. VirtualDub will rewrite the Audio header with standard CBR values.
3. This may introduce a 13627 ms skew of sound to video ratio.
4. If this is unacceptable, decompress the entire audio stream to an uncompressed WAV file, and then recompress with a constant bitrate.



Two questions:

1. Is the ms delay only an issue with playback in VD, or does it affect the product that is burned to disk?
2. How would I perform this decompression/uncompression?


Thanx for any input you can provide,

Bleach Clean

[mats.hogberg]

Ouch! VBR audio in AVI is a headache, not only to VirtualDub, but at least VDub has the decensy to come out and tell you so!
There's a special VirtualDub version, VirtualDub MP3 Freeze that's rumored to deal with this issue correctly. If not, I'm unsure how to reliably deal with this, but try:
Ignore the warning, don't let VDub rewrite headers, do your cuts, set both audio & video to direct stream, save new AVI. Play thru and see if it's in sync or not.

You could also extract the mp3 audio to wav (load AVI in Goldwave, save), load AVI in VirtualDub, select "WAV audio" and your decoded wav, and set audio compression (back to mp3 again) when saving the AVI.

/Mats

[Bleach Clean]

Ok Update:

Acquired Virtual Dub MP3 Freeze, and here's what happened:

1. Opened file, there was no pop-up indicating a need for a change to standard CBR Audio = Good.

2. Movie played with sound for a few seconds, and then sound cut out.

3. The header of the program's menu box stated that the sound was being dubbed, or rather "dubbing in progress". I allowed the dubbing process to complete itself, but afterwards, I was left with video and no sound.

Will now attempt to start the more complicated method you had suggested Mats. Hopefully that works.

Bleach Clean