Compressing AVIs

[CecilB]

Please forgive mt if this is covered elsewhere or is common knowledge, but this site is so blessed with information it's a nightmare trying to get specific answers without knowing where to look.

I don't want to rip or convert anything. I have AVI video files that i want to compress.

I think that they are all DivX but i'm not sure.

I would love it if someone could simplify the process of finding out how to compress stuff so that i can get the prog, read the FAQ and let it run overnight.

I have a whole host of downloaded progs, from DVD2AVI to AutoGK to Nandub and virtual dub but for the life of me i don't know how to simply squas the files.

Can someone help this simple fool?.

[Baldrick]

I like AutoGK, add the avi, select Custom size and set the desired output size. Convert.

Lower size means lower video quality so don't shrink it tooo much.

In many other tools like Virtualdub must you set the video and audio bitrate manually to get the file size you want. You can calculate the bitrate so you will get the size you want using a bitrate calculator like www.videohelp.com/calc

[steveryan]

Use AutoGK, load your AVI, click Custom size(MB). If your original AVI is 780MB change the custom size to 650MB (or whatever size you require)

[yoda313]

I think that they are all DivX but i'm not sure.

In order to be sure for specific projects you can use a program like gspot. Just open gspot and load the file you want to find out about. It will tell you the resolution, bitrate, and the codecs for both video and audio. Very helpful little tool. And the latest versions can read mpg files too. It also has a rating of whether or not the file is already in a sutiable configuration for conversion to dvd (if its avi you have to convert to mpeg2 for dvd conversion but this will let you know where the file is right now).

[CecilB]

Thank you for your prompt and helpful replies.
I tried Auto GK which has the simplest interface, but have some problems.
1. The audio is out of synch.
2. It didn't compress to the 340 i asked, but 348.

Do I have to use a more complicated program like virtualdub in order to compress at this size, or have i just missed setting in autoGK ?.

Please forgive my questioning of you, but i've been trying to RTF-ing-Ms for ages now and it's not working for me.

[Baldrick]

1. Probably because of vbr mp3 audio in your avi and that often cause sync problems. Try use avi recomp instead, it is made for recompressions most avis.