How can I shrink an AVI

[dfisher052]

I have an AVI that is a little too long to fit on 1 CD. All I want to do is shrink it from 794 MB to 700 MB. I don't want to cut it to fit. I do want to use the whole thing. The quality is not all that great so I'm not that worried about loosing quality, and I don't want to convert it to DVD. I just want to shrink it a little. Any suggestions on what program might do that. I know Shrink works fine for dvd's, but is there something comperable for AVI's?

[steveryan]

Load it into AutoGK, use the custom size option.

[Cornucopia]

Instead of shrinking, you could make a Mode2 CD.

Scott

[luke51]

Another possibility is AVIReComp.

[12Quidkidinnit]

In the export options with Windows Movie Maker 2, you can specify the file size and it will be adjusted accordingly. (this will export the movie in Windows Media Video format)

File
Save Movie
Movie Location - My Computer
Movie Setting - Show More Choices
Best Fit To File Size
______________________

In the Movie File Size box (bottom right) it will tell you exactly how much space the video is going to take up.

[guns1inger]

Windows Media Maker only outputs DV avi, at 13GB per hour (nothing you can do to change this), or Windows Media Video (WMV), so it is not use to the OP, who has Xvid avi.

[dfisher052]

Well, I did download AutoGK & installed & it's been rendering eversince. It's been almost 4 hours. I could have rendered to a DVD in half the time. I don't think this is gonna work out very well if this program takes what looks to be about 5 hours just to make a 700 MB AVI. If it ever finishes I will try AVIReComp & see if that works any better.

[guns1inger]

It probably won't be much faster, as neither of these do most of the work - the codec does. If the codec is slow in one, it will be slow in the other, all other settings being equal.

I rarely use CDs anymore anyway. I just put 5 - 6 movies on a DVD instead.

[TJohns]

Or just buy some 99 minute (800 MB) CD's

[guns1inger]

There can be a lot of compatibility problems, both burning and for playback, with 99 minute CDs.

[dfisher052]

Just in case anyone might be interested:

I ran a test of both AutoGK & AVI ReComp. I took a 3 minute section of the AVI that I wanted to shrink. It was 36 MB in size so I decided that I would see what would happen if I brought it down to 30 MB.
The Auto GK took 18 minutes 38 seconds. The AVI ReComp took 13 minutes 46 seconds. As far as I could tell they pretty much all looked about the same in quality.
I guess I'm gonna keep the AVI ReComp in case I want to do this again.
Thanks guys for your tips on what programs to try. It was a big help, as usual