Reducing file size without loss of quality

[Solitary]

Hi

Last week I decided to clean up some of my home movies and author them on to a DVD so they can be played on any DVD player as well as any computer. First step, of course, is to edit the clips as needed and turn them into a suitable format for burning and authoring.

My equipment is ancient: AMD Athlon CPU, 4gigabytes of RAM, MS XP SP3. It’s slow as molasses, but that’s not a worry to me. I can let this box chug along overnight or for days if necessary and do stuff on my Linux unit.

So here is my very first effort. I took this clip, filmed with a Canon IXUS 220 HS, and named it Bluetongue_chucks_a_uey_original.MOV

Format                      : MPEG-4
Format profile              : QuickTime
Codec ID                    : qt   2007.09 (qt  /CAEP)
File size                   : 45.7 MiB
Duration                    : 15 s 82 ms
Overall bit rate            : 25.4 Mb/s
CNTH                        : "

Video
ID                          : 1
Format                      : AVC
Format/Info                 : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile              : Baseline@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC      : No
Format settings, RefFrames  : 1 frame
Format settings, GOP        : M=1, N=15
Codec ID                    : avc1
Codec ID/Info               : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                    : 15 s 82 ms
Bit rate                    : 23.8 Mb/s
Width                       : 1 280 pixels
Height                      : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio        : 16:9
Frame rate mode             : Constant
Frame rate                  : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Color space                 : YUV
Chroma subsampling          : 4:2:0
Bit depth                   : 8 bits
Scan type                   : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)          : 0.863
Stream size                 : 42.8 MiB (94%)
Color range                 : Full
Color primaries             : BT.709
Transfer characteristics    : BT.709
Matrix coefficients         : BT.601


Audio
ID                          : 2
Format                      : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Little
Format settings, Sign       : Signed
Codec ID                    : sowt
Duration                    : 15 s 82 ms
Bit rate mode               : Constant
Bit rate                    : 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s)                  : 2 channels
Channel positions           : Front: L R
Sampling rate               : 48.0 kHz
Bit depth                   : 16 bits
Stream size                 : 2.76 MiB (6%)

and snipped just under 4 seconds off the end using VirtualDub and saved it as Bluetongue_chucks_a_uey_snipped.avi.

Format                      : AVI
Format/Info                 : Audio Video Interleave
File size                   : 36.3 MiB
Duration                    : 12 s 12 ms
Overall bit rate            : 25.4 Mb/s
Writing library             : VirtualDub build 35491/release

Video
ID                          : 0
Format                      : AVC
Format/Info                 : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile              : Baseline@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC      : No
Format settings, RefFrames  : 1 frame
Format settings, GOP        : M=1, N=15
Codec ID                    : AVC1
Duration                    : 12 s 12 ms
Bit rate                    : 23.8 Mb/s
Width                       : 1 280 pixels
Height                      : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio        : 16:9
Frame rate                  : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Color space                 : YUV
Chroma subsampling          : 4:2:0
Bit depth                   : 8 bits
Scan type                   : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)          : 0.862
Stream size                 : 34.1 MiB (94%)
Color range                 : Full
Color primaries             : BT.709
Transfer characteristics    : BT.709
Matrix coefficients         : BT.601

Audio
ID                          : 1
Format                      : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Little
Format settings, Sign       : Signed
Codec ID                    : 1
Duration                    : 12 s 12 ms
Bit rate mode               : Constant
Bit rate                    : 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s)                  : 2 channels
Sampling rate               : 48.0 kHz
Bit depth                   : 16 bits
Stream size                 : 2.20 MiB (6%)
Alignment                   : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration        : 35  ms (1.04 video frame)
Interleave, preload duratio : 500  ms

Next, I put the clip through VideoDub’s stabiliser filter and named it Bluetongue_chucks_a_uey_stabilised.avi

Format                      : AVI
Format/Info                 : Audio Video Interleave
File size                   : 951 MiB
Duration                    : 12 s 12 ms
Overall bit rate            : 664 Mb/s
Writing library             : VirtualDub build 35491/release

Video
ID                          : 0
Format                      : RGB
Codec ID                    : 0x00000000
Codec ID/Info               : Basic Windows bitmap format. 1, 4 and 8 bpp versions are palettised. 16, 24 and 32bpp contain raw RGB samples
Duration                    : 12 s 12 ms
Bit rate                    : 663 Mb/s
Width                       : 1 280 pixels
Height                      : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio        : 16:9
Frame rate                  : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Bit depth                   : 8 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)          : 24.000
Stream size                 : 949 MiB (100%)

Audio
ID                          : 1
Format                      : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Little
Format settings, Sign       : Signed
Codec ID                    : 1
Duration                    : 12 s 12 ms
Bit rate mode               : Constant
Bit rate                    : 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s)                  : 2 channels
Sampling rate               : 48.0 kHz
Bit depth                   : 16 bits
Stream size                 : 2.20 MiB (0%)
Alignment                   : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration        : 35  ms (1.04 video frame)
Interleave, preload duratio : 500  ms

I am happy with what the filter did. Not so happy that the file size has blown out from 36.3 to 951 MiB.

So, the question is: What do I need to do to reduce the file size without compromising quality and will play on any DVD player?

[sneaker]

and snipped just under 4 seconds off the end using VirtualDub and saved it as Bluetongue_chucks_a_uey_snipped.avi.
[...]
Next, I put the clip through VideoDub’s stabiliser filter and named it Bluetongue_chucks_a_uey_stabilised.avi

Two steps are a waste of time.

I am happy with what the filter did. Not so happy that the file size has blown out from 36.3 to 951 MiB.

So, the question is: What do I need to do to reduce the file size without compromising quality and will play on any DVD player?

Video-DVD is specified as max 720x576 with ancient MPEG2 codec. You will have to compromise quality to some extent if you insist on authoring DVDs that work on "any DVD player" (actually, with PAL/NTSC differences and whatnot that can't be guaranteed).


Try AVStoDVD to author the DVD. Since it uses AviSynth it may be easiest to use one of the stabilizing filters for AviSynth and skip the whole VirtualDub process.

[jagabo]

Most VirtualDub filters work only in RGB. So incoming video is decompressed and converted to RGB. If you save that without selecting a compression codec you will end up with uncompressed RGB in a very large AVI file. if you want a smaller file select a compression codec. Or frame serve to an encoder that supports frame serving -- that will allow VirtualDub to send the video directly to another program without saving to an intermediate file.