Reduce dimensions of AVI file

[hockey2112]

I have an AVI file of a 45-minute TV show. Its current dimensions are 960x528. Its filesize (700MB) is roughly twice that of other episodes of this show (350MB, dimensions of 608x336).

What would be the best possible method for reducing the dimensions of the 700MB episode in order to reduce the filesize to be at least close to the 350MB episodes? I would like all of these files to be uniform in size and dimensions, for archival purposes. Will I compromise much video quality, or will the quality of this 700MB file be equivalent to the 350MB file, once it has been reduced? Is there a different way to achieve these results?

FYI, both the 700MB and 350MB files are DVD-rip quality, as they are from an HDTV source.

Thanks...

[bugster]

Open the file in virtualdub, resize, re-encode with the same codec as before but at a lower bitrate.

[hockey2112]

Thanks for the reply. Are there any other settings I should be aware of, such as the direct stream/full processing mode settings in Audio and Video?

[bugster]

Thanks for the reply. Are there any other settings I should be aware of, such as the direct stream/full processing mode settings in Audio and Video?

To re-encode the video and use the resize filter, you need to set video to full processing mode, then selct your compression codec, configure it, and select th resize filter and configure it too.
Leave audio as direct stream copy.

Once everything is set up, go to file->save avi and wait!

[hockey2112]

I will give that a shot. Thanks for the tips.