reducing avi file size

[spoonmasta]

Hi, i have an avi file that is 350MB: the video size 720x540, audio is 116kbs mpeg-3

i want to reduce the file size to around 150MB without losing video quality
is there anyway for me to just changing the video size to 640x325?
i tried to use TMPEG, but couldn't figure out how to do it.

thanks in advance

[jeex]

no matter what, you will lose video quality.

[daamon]

Hi spoonmasta,

Jeex is right. You could try encoding to either of MPEG1 or MPEG2, depending on the quality of your source - if it's OK / average, go for MPEG1 if it's high (like from a DV cam) then go for MPEG2.

If choosing MPEG2, the higher the bitrate the better the quality but the bigger the file.

I use TMPGEnc to encode, but there are others. I'm not sure it accepts MP3. If you have problems, you can strip out the audio to a WAV file using VirtualDub, and then use that as the audio in TMPGEnc.

Experiment is the key...

[spoonmasta]

ok, i guess i can stand some loss of quality...so im gonna use Tmpeg.
i loaded the source file, and cliked setting to change the encoding properties (i didnt use the templates b/c none of them had the video size that i was looking for)

for video i selected mpeg-1
i used custom video size and set it at 640x360
i set audio to PCM at 44.1khz

after encoding, the video has huge black borders around it
even when i used fullscreen mode in WMP, it still has thick black border

Does anyone know how to reduce the size of the video with having the large black borders?

[jimmalenko]

It sounds like an aspect ratio thing. If you have it set to 4:3 then it will go as wide as possible to 360 but it can only go 480 high, hence black borders on the top. Either choose a res that supplements your aspect ration or modify the aspect ratio.

[reboot]

Set the aspect to "Full Screen with Aspect Ratio".