Compressing files recorded with a TV tuner

[petar one]

hi could you tell me which program is good for compressing video files recorded with a TV tuner card. The files I've recorded are very large and are becoming a problem, cause I don't have much free space on my hard drive. I've tried to using Virtual Dab but the files are still large, they barely change in size only about 100 mb or so, they are about 2 gb a file and the video is only long one and a half hour, the files are recorded in mpeg 2 with 6400kb/s, I've tried to lower the compression to somewhere along the lines of 700 kb/s to 800 kb/s but the size stays the same, I tried compression them with Xvid and Divx.
any help would be appreciated

[gadgetguy]

What is your capture card? (hint-put it in your computer profile)
What capture software are you using?
What steps are you following to re-encode?

...they are about 2 gb a file and the video is only long one and a half hour, the files are recorded in mpeg 2 with 6400kb/s...

An hour and a half of video encoded at 6400kbs should be a little over 3gb, not 2.

I've tried to lower the compression to somewhere along the lines of 700 kb/s to 800 kb/s but the size stays the same

There must have been a flaw in your process/settings because it is impossible to re-encode at a smaller bitrate and not reduce the filesize.

[redwudz]

2GB an for an hour and a half is small for MPEG-2. I don't know why they would not change in size with Xvid as a codec. What format is the audio? If you convert to Xvid with VirtualDub Mod and were using a bitrate of 700kb/s, along with converting the audio to MP3, they should drop down in size considerably, to probably 1/2 of the original size or smaller.

[Krispy Kritter]

Most tuner cards allow you to adjust the settings used during the capture and/or the format used. So ideally, you would just capture at the settings you want the files. Otherwise, convert to avi using the latest divx as stated above.