Freeware App To Change Video File Size, But Not Video Or Audio Codecs

[LouieChuckyMerry]

Hello, and thanks to VideoHelp.com for several years of Googled tutorials on all things video. And, thanks in advance to anyone willing to help me; I appreciate it. I've spent scores of hours Googling and trying programs, but nothing fits my need. What I'm looking for is a freeware application that will easily shrink a video file, no matter (within reason, of course) it's video and audio codecs, while keeping those video and audio codecs the same. For example, I want to take a 1.4 GB video file--regardless of its video and audio codecs--and, keeping those original video and audio codecs, shrink it to 900 MB without having to be a video genius (such as yourselves ). Basically, I want the video equivalent of an audio "converter" that will take an mp3 audio file at a CBR 320 and "change" it to an mp3 audio file at VBR 224-256; that is, the size of the file gets much smaller, the quality of the file gets negligibly lower, but the file type remains the same. I'm sure that this is possible, but I can't find a video "conversion" program that simply lets me change the size of the original file while keeping every other attribute the same. Please, does anyone have a suggestion? Thanks again for your time.

[guns1inger]

I don't know of any that will do every codec - that is a big ask - but Xvid4psp covers most of them. You also have to have reasonable expectations on how much you can crush an already crushed video with negligible visible damage.

[LouieChuckyMerry]

Wow, that was so fast that it was an accident that I noticed! Thank you guns1inger. I don't need an answer for every codec, only the usual suspects: mostly various avi files (divx, xvid, h264) and some mkv and mp4 files. My only goal is to "shrink" some of the video files that I possess so that they occupy less space on my portable external hard drive. My lifestyle has recently changed so that space is more important than size; thus, I want some of the video files that I own to occupy less space. The only trouble that I've had with all of the video "converters" that I've installed and tried recently is that they default to change the file type, whereas I just want to shrink the file using the same file type. Here's a perfect example: when I lived in a house and had a 5 TB external drive, I ripped all of my DVD's with DVD Decrypter into 1.4 GB avi files so that I had backups of my disks. Now, I'm on the road for the unforeseeable future and thus have limited space on my portable external drive. I want to take the DVD's that I ripped into 1.4 GB files and shrink them to, say, 900 MB files without changing any other properties. I know that the quality will decrease, but given that I'm watching the files on a 14" laptop with headphones I don't really notice. I'm now going to check your suggestion, Xvid4sp, but am open to other suggestions.

[guns1inger]

If you want to reduce them that much, I would suggest H264 MKV files. You can probably get down to 900MB with minimal visual quality loss. Personally, I would just buy a second, bigger HDD. The damn things are so cheap there is little reason to compromise quality any more.

[LouieChuckyMerry]

Thanks for another idea. Converting to a more "efficient" format was always in the back of my head, but your post pushed it to the front. I hope that someday portable HDD's are larger than 1 TB (and cheaper), but until then I'm stuck with what I have.