Avi file too large for CD

[hitmanhill]

Hi everyone.I have an AVI movie file that is 1GB.
Could anyone advise the preferred way of burning to a CD.
Do I need to split file(best software) to burn on 2 CD's or can I shrink somehow without losing quality.

Thanks.
Darren.

[Nilfennasion]

can I shrink somehow without losing quality

Simply put, no.

If it were just a couple of megabytes you were talking about, then you would lose quality, but not enough that you would notice the difference. But you are talking about shedding about 324 megabytes, which is near to a third of the original. You cannot lose that much out of a file and not expect to notice a difference in the quality of the video output.

[hitmanhill]

Thanks.Could some one maybe point me to a guide for splitting file in 2 and put on 2 CD's.

Thanks.
Darren.

[redwudz]

If that were a typical 1GB Xvid/Divx and you converted it to MPEG-2 DVD format, it would likely end up as a 2 - 3+ GB MPEG-2 file, depending on the encoding. You would have to dump a whole lot to get it to even two CDs. A DVD-5 would be a better choice. Or re-encode it down to VCD format and use two CDs, but quality will suffer.

You could re-encode it to MPG-1, preferably from the original AVI file, to VCD format with TMPGEnc encoder. It's freeware for MPEG-1.

[CobraPilot]

"Quality" is subjective: What is unacceptable "quality" to one person's eye is "adequate" or better to someone else's.

There are program which will take your 1 gb file, shrink/recode down to CDR size and you may not even notice the inevitable "quality loss" or you might find it totally unacceptable. Experimentation is in order.

For example, Nero Recode ($$ at www.nero.com) will shrink a 90-minute movie (VOB files) to fit on a 700 mb CDR in its proprietary MP4 format with no appreciable quality loss to my eye, even on a big-screen tv (if you have a DVD player that plays them--see www.avayon.com). Other programs are available, some freeware, such as those that use Divx or Xvid, to do the equivalent.

As mentioned by others, VCD might work but you will likely notice the quality decline. However, SVCD might work, depending on the time length of your AVI.

Good luck and let us know if you try a shrink/recode method that works for you and your personal "quality eye."

[CogoSWSDS]

If it's an AVI file and you don't care about playing it back on a set-top player, or if your set-top player is capable of playing DivX and your AVI file uses the DivX codec, you can use VirtualDub to split the AVI file onto multiple CDs with no quality loss.

1. Load the AVI file into VirtualDub.
2. Click the "Mark-in" button.
3. Drag the slider over to where you've got about 700 MB of the movie.
4. Click the "Mark-out" button.
5. Click Video->Direct Stream Copy.
6. Click File->Save as AVI and give this file a name.
7. Click the "Mark-in" button.
8. Drag the slider over to the end of the movie.
9. Click the "Mark-out button.
10.Click File->Save as AVI and give this another name.

Now burn the two AVI files to 2 CDs. Note that this will work in your set-top player only if your AVI file uses the DivX (or possibly XVID) codecs AND your set-top player can play the format. It will also work if you are just going to play it back on the computer.

If you don't know what codec the file uses, run it through gspot. It will tell you what codec the file is using.

CogoSWSDS

[hitmanhill]

Thanks everyone.Successfully used Virtualdub onto 2 CD's.Great tool.
Didnt want to burn to DVD because of the time factor of converting to DVD file and burning.

Thanks.
Darren.

[guns1inger]

You could burn several files to DVD as data without converting. Much less anoying than having to change discs half way through a movie.

[mishkin777]

Hi again,
I have a similar question to CogoSWSDS.
You did a really great job explaining the process of spliting the 1GB size AVI file by using VirtualDub.

Could you please help me with the same issue, but my AVI file is 4.4GB, and therefore every program I tried (VirtualDub/virtualDubeMode/Nero7/SolveigMM AVI Trimmer/etc.) failed. In most cases programs just don't want to recognize the AVI file that big, and just give me all kinds of different errors when I try to just open the file within them.

Please Help me if you can. Maybe someone else is knowlegeble in this regard, so don't hesitate to step in too.
I'd like to split the AVI file (4.4G) into equal smaller files (2 - 2.2G, or 4 - 1.1G, or any other way) of the same format (AVI).
My DVD player is pretty much universal and recognizes almost every known format, but when I burned such file onto DVD-R - it did not recognize the file, so I blame the size of it, as it was the first time ever when I tried to "work" with such size.
Thank you in advance.

[guns1inger]

Most players will struggle with singles files over 2GB, to you will have to split the file into at least three parts. However if you are getting errors opening the file in virtualdub and others, chances are you have other issues with the file.

Try using AVI Demux. A quick play and you will find that it works very much like virtualdub, but has a few neat tricks up it's sleave that vdub doesn't have.

[mishkin777]

Thanks for fast input, guns1inger. Appreciate that.
Yes, I agree with what you said about standalone DVD players, and that is exactly why I have posted my question here .
I don't mind splitting the file even into 100 parts, as long as some utility program will be able to handle the original file!!

I did try using the Demux as well --> unfortunately with the same result. The actual pop up message in Demux is :"Attempt to open MY_FILE failed. Could not open the file."
I should probably also mention here that Demux handled 2.3 GB AVI file just fine!
But not the 4.3 GB one.

Maybe you are right and maybe the file is corrupted, or something ... BUT - I can play it back just fine with any player on my PC. Not sure if that answers the question or not...
Is the any program that could let me know if the file is bad 'behind-the-scene'???
Or if it plays back fine – Does that mean that the file is perfectly healthy?
Do you per chance know - what is the cap size (max) for the AVI file for the VirtualDubMod, if any?

I am lost and need some serious help here. Or any bright

- - - -
The most dangerous virus usually sits in front of the monitor!
- - - -

[guns1inger]

Are you specs correct ? You only have a 40 GB HDD ?

Two things to check if this is the case

1. What file system are you using (NTFS or FAT32)

2. How much spare space do you have ?

FAT32 has a 4GB filesize limit

Most editors require some temp space when opening or working with files, and if you don't have enough spare . . .

FWIW, I have opened 60+ GB files in virtualdubmpeg-2 and virtualdubmod without issue.

[mishkin777]

File System: NTFS
My main (internal) HDD is only 40 G. That is true.
But I also have an external HDD, connected through USB, with the size of 500 G. It helps a little with all the media files nowadays.
I try to keep my internal disk as clean as possible, and store all the downloaded files outside of the internal system disk. Now it has about 20 G of a free space.
. . . . . . . .
If you worked with the files that big... then maybe you're right and my AVI file has some flaw somewhere.
(Is there a way to find this out?)

But then again, why there is no problem with playing it back on the same PC… …

{
Here is the original link I’ve used in order to download the file via eMule:
ed2k://|file|The Matrix - %D0%9C%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B0 (Hdtv Rus Avc Aac) Mp4.avi|4669292718|051FADA8D4EF9E522A7832A2C5F61A9 7|/
}

BTW, just tried it one more time with the virtualdubmpeg-2. Here is the result:
Cannot detect file type of “E:\@@@@@@@@@@@@@.AVI”

Thanks again for willing to help

Still feel lost in a jungle.

[tug_hill2]

""" Hi everyone.I have an AVI movie file that is 1GB.
Could anyone advise the preferred way of burning to a CD.
Do I need to split file(best software) to burn on 2 CD's or can I shrink somehow without losing quality.

Thanks.
Darren. ""

Hello Darren, Why not just burn the file as data (in 1 piece) to a DVD. Most DVD players will also play Divx files burned to a DVD.


TugHill

[RabidDog]

Try renaming the file to file.avi or movie.avi it might be the non-unicode chars in the filename that are banjaxing your chances of playing it.

[mishkin777]

Thanks RabidDog. I did that once the file was downloaded.
The name "The_Matrix-rus-HDTV.avi" should be just fine, i guess. And that is the name I am working with.

The link I mentioned above was just for info purpose (to include all additional info about the file)
Thanks.

[poisondeathray]

mishkin777 - does your standalone player play AVC/h.264? or just DivX? Does it support AAC audio?

According to your info "(Hdtv Rus Avc Aac) Mp4.avi", if this is correct, then the file is encoded using AVC, and AAC for audio

You can find out more information on your file by using mediainfo; it would help with more answers

[mats.hogberg]

You could also buy it. No help with illegal downloads at VideoHelp.

/Mats