The Best Option???

[Dom_Sisko]

Ok I have a small problem that maybe someone can help me with!
I have tons of videos on my hard drives (over 1 TB!) but am running out of room. I would like to make them smaller but lose as little quality as possible. Most of the videos are 1 hr (more like 45 minutes) tv shows. But I do have some 30 minutes and some movies that are 90 mins or longer.
Most are in 1 of three formats .avi, .mpg or .wmv.
These are the average file sizes for the different lengths.

30 minutes usually = 175 mb
1 hr usually = 350 mb
2 hrs usually = 700 mb

The only requirement I have is that they have to be able to be played on a computer that is running WinXP Media Center Edition.

Is there anything I can do to get these smaller? Or should I just look into more and bigger hard drives!
Thanks in Advance!

[JimboS]

Have you considered putting them on DVD's ???????????

[Dom_Sisko]

Yes I have considered it but I don't want them on DVDs and It would take a huge amount of DVDs to do it!

[Jim44]

Or should I just look into more and bigger hard drives!

Drives are cheap, just do this. It'll take less time than converting 1TB of video, too

Jim - 1.25TB of storage, over 4 drives

[JimboS]

Are they that important to your life???
Can you just delete some of them??
Why are TV shows so important to people, I have no idea....
They come and they go....
TV programs suck!!!
Except for NG, AP and the like............

[JimboS]

Just had an idea............
Your a COLLECTOR..........
I know darn well you never watch all that you have on your hard drive....
If you do...you obviously don't work and live at home with your parents....

[Dom_Sisko]

The only problem with getting bigger or more drives is I'm running out of places to put them. I only have like 3 slots on my MB. I also have 2 externals!
The videos are mostly of shows that I do watch and would watch again. Also most of them are shows that are not or never will be out on DVD. Some are also movies that are hard to find and will never be out on DVD!

And No I don't live with my parents but I have a night job where I sit there (work at a gas station) and have nothing to do for almost 6 and half hours!

[olyteddy]

More Hard Drives is still the answer. You don't have to have an external drive attached to a computer or even powered up for it to retain data. You only need it active to read or write data to it...

[edDV]

A $99 500GB hard drive is the new DVDR.

[guns1inger]

30 minutes usually = 175 mb
1 hr usually = 350 mb
2 hrs usually = 700 mb

Frankly, I think this is over compressing them if the source is good. I usually put 45 - 55 minutes into 450 - 550 MB.

AutoGK or AlltoAVI or WinFF will do the conversion for you, but you will lose quality - potentially a lot if you use the numbers you have cited. Adding more disk space, as has been suggested many times, will be a much faster solution and won't hurt the quality.