XviD and DivX file size

[timmer545]

I am perplexed with respect to the size of files I am getting using XviD and DivX compression. In short, I’m trying to determine the optimum settings to generate files similar to those I have been receiving.

For years I have received, but never generated, avi files that were approximately 750MB of good quality (by my standards) that were anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes in length. Attempting to create my own avi’s using VirtualDub and XviD I have been creating working files however their size increases by a factor of 2 to 4.5 times the size.

EXMPLE 1
I recently received a series of videos that were in .ogm format. Because this wasn’t playable on my DVD player I followed guides on this forum and extracted the autio to .wav, then used BeSweet (with BeLite) convert the audio (fps), used VirtualDub with XviD to generate the final .avi. The size of the file increased from 364.5MB to 1,536MB. Next I went in a selected compression of XviD which resulted in a 969MB file.

EXAMPLE 2
I recently received a .vob disk that was not playable on my DVD player however was playable using VLC. Using VideoReDo I extracted three separate .mpg files, the size being the summation of the .vob’s. I’ved only experimented with one of these .mpg’s thus far; first I used DivX to convert the .mpg (1,738MB) to a .divx (1,029MB); since the aspect ratio was not correct I next used VirtualDub to (a) correct the aspect ratio and (b) save using XviD compression which resulted in a file size of 4,559MB. After searching this forum I determined I should set the “calc” value at my desired file size, which I did then recompressed however I ended up with a file size about the same 4+GB (I was aiming for a 1,350MB size).

Since I am new at compressing files, I’m looking for recommended setting, primarily using XviD. I’ve been using “unrestricted.” I don’t know if I should be using a specific method, two-pass, etc. I have read comments concerning lowering the bitrate. I’ve looked at the attributes of the .avi’s that I like using AVI2Clipboard, but can’t seem to determine enough info to improve what I am doing. Are there recommendations for “what” to adjust; “what” to select; “boundary ranges” for settings so as not to deteriorate quality too much?

--timmer

[Ai Haibara]

This may not exactly help, but in the first example, you technically don't need to convert.
OGMs usually contain an Xvid AVI-format video stream (no audio), Ogg-format audio stream(s), and maybe subtitle streams. So, you could actually just demux everything from the OGM container, convert the Ogg audio streams to MP3, use something like VirtualDubMod to remux the audio (and perhaps the subtitles) streams into the AVI, and you're done. No worrying about the file size changing.

You should probably use a bitrate calculator to determine the result you want, and configure Xvid/DivX with the resulting figures when encoding. For the second example, you can always feed the DVD structure to a program like AutoGK, and tell it to limit the file size of the resulting AVI.

I'm not sure how well AVI2Clipboard works or how much information it gives, as I've never tried it. But, you might also try GSpot and MediaInfo; those might provide more information.

[Heywould3]

a bit rate for video of around 1000 or less. i use 900 and a mp3 audio of 128 will produce a 90min video with around 800mbs in size give or take. its possible that you are using to high of settigns. you can look at the properties by right clicking on the final file and see if your to high or low. or gspot is a good idea too.