How to compress an AVI?

[delray]

I am using Pinnacle Express to produce a small clip of home video from a DV camcorder, but it is a huge AVI file for about 3–5 minutes motion picture (burn to a VCD). I read many, many “how to’s” and am confused of what to use to minimize the file size before burning it to a VCD. Is there anything I could use to compress the AVI file before I burn it to a VCD. I heard about DivX and downloaded to my PC but not sure what good does it do to me. Many Thanks…

[dcapp1]

If your going to watch the movie on your standalone dvd player then I would suggest the HuffyUv codec. Thats if you have a big hardrive because it produces a huge file, but is very good quality. Otherwise use the picvideo codec.

[delray]

Still need help.

I will use a DVD player that can read VCD to play this home movie, however, if HuffyUv codec uses up lot of H/D then I would not go there. I would like to know more about picvideo codec (i.e. does it compress AVI to a subtaintial ratio 100:1?).

All I need is to minimize the AVI file size to something acceptable then burn it to a VCD. Thanks in advance.

[zedolfblack]

To get the best quality VCD you should encode your MPEG1 for your VCD from the original DV file.

If you re-encode the DV file - say with DivX - then re-encode this DivX to MPEG1 for your VCD you'll no doubt lose a noticeable amount of picture quality.

Martin.