Program to compress AVI files

[Mark Haney]

Paul Smith wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 8:39 PM, Mark Haney <mhaney at ercbroadband.org> wrote:
>>>> Thanks to both. I am talking about encoding to a smaller file size. Any
>>>> ideas?
>>> mencoder would be a good program.
>>>
>>> I would suggest first playing it with mplayer and seeing what the current
>>> encoding is, if it is already xvid/divx/x264 encoded you won't
>> I've found mencoder not to be quite as functional as transcode for certain
>> applications.  However, I do agree with Roger, you need to find out the
>> existing codec/aspect ratio before tinkering with the file. Instead of using
>> mplayer, I'd try just using 'file <videoname>', that gives you a good amount
>> of info on the file (just in case the file is on a remote system as mine are
>> sometimes).
>>
>> I do have a couple of standard lines for adjusting video files that I'll be
>> glad to share if you want.  They aren't anything more than typical
>> transcode/mencoder lines with basic options that I"ve saved since I can't
>> always remember the options.
> 
> Thanks to all for all helpful comments.
> 
> The details of my file are:
> 
> $ file example.avi
> example.avi: RIFF (little-endian) data, AVI, 1024 x 768, 30.00 fps,
> video: uncompressed
> $
> 
> Paul
> 

That looks like raw video to me.  There's no codec mentioned at or, nor 
any audio stream encoded.  And 1024X768 @30fps has to be a monster file 
size.  You should be able to drop that file down a lot with almost any 
codec.  I would suggest Xvid (or H264, but I like Xvid more) and use the 
AC3 audio codec (if audio is present).

May i ask what this file is?  And where you got it?  Is it an output 
from a video camera?  I've never seen raw video at that resolution before.


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Mark Haney
Sr. Systems Administrator
ERC Broadband
(828) 350-2415

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