Compressing an .AVI?

[AuraEdge]

I opened up FlaskMPEG, and it wouldnt let me input an AVI (Only VOB, MPG, etc.)
Is there a way to change the AVI into one of those formats, so it can be changed into an MPEG4?
Or is there any other way?

[muno]

Try windows media encoder, it might be able to compress in real time the video capture into a more convenient format. Otherwise you need to capture it into avi first and then compress into some other format. VirtualDub has a way of getting around the 2gb avi limit but I'm not sure how it works with tuner (I only have vivo). The compression utilities are free most of the time. And windows media encoder does pretty good quality at bitrates like 600kb/sec for vid and 96kb/sec for audio (MPEG4/WMA).
-M

[greenlion]

Related to the problem, could somebody please tell me how to play an AVI file? Whenever I attempt to play one, it always say it couldn't due to a missing decompressor. Help, anyone?

I also had this problem a year ago but I was able to download something to make the player work. I forgot what I did before.

[muno]

That avi is prolly compressed into divx. Get divx decoder from the internet. Can't remember a direct url but try a search engine on divx decoder =)
-M

[AuraEdge]

I taped something with my TV Tuner card into an AVI, but its really big, because I took it at highest quality. Is there any way for me to compress it, even if its lossy? Problem is its a 3 minute recording, but its like 140MB. I wanna be able to send this to people, so something like 1:10 compression would be optimal.
Again its not a big deal if the Image quality or frame rate is lossy, I just need to get the size down. Any freeware/shareware program thatll do this?

[Szech]

Yes! DivX video compression, and MP3 audio compression. I use FlasKMPEG to take care of this, and it works very nicely. Check out the "How to copy a DVD" guide off of www.tomshardware.com (http://www.tomshardware.com) . I know you're not trying to compress a DVD, but it still applies.

[Wiruz]

http://divx.ctw.cc

URL for DiVX ;-)

Also, you could try to compress it into normal mpeg, or use one of windows' own codec - like Indeo 3.something - it has good picture quality, and small sizes

~Wiruz, The Digital Hippie

[Variable]

I would also be interested in compressing an avi video (currently 10MB) for the web.
I want to put it on my webpage.
Any help?

I also tried FlaskMPEG and it wouldn't let me input an avi-file

[IFReeman]

It might be worth looking at this page, if you look at the encoding section there are a number of utilities for converting avi to mpg. I dont know how well they work, but it might be worth giving them a try.

Greenlion all you need to do is download the divx codec from here
http://divx-digest.webjump.com/software/encode/divx_311alpha.exe

then install it. Then when it is installed there is a file called "run me first," run this and it will ask you if you want to install it, say yes and then use windows media player or something like powerdvd to play your avi file.

Hope it helps.

Regards Iain

[RobRich]

I generally use RealVideo, so I can utilize the compressed a/v with most operating systems currently available. However, recently, I have moved towards MicroSoft's Windows Media v8. It is based on a MS optimized version of MPEG4, similar to DIVX.

Check out these links:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/default.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/compare/quality.asp

For those seeking a quicker alternative, I also recommend CinePlayer DVR. This utility allows for capturing directly to MPEG or ASF. Nice utility, but this software can seriously impact the performance of even a high-end systems. Here is more info:

http://www.cinax.com

As similar direct capture/compression freeware utility is Capture Studio. It can capture to a variety of formats, plus convert video to ther compression standards. More info here:

http://www.bitwelder.karoo.net/dloads.html

As for video editing, the freeware editor Zwei-Stein offers a decent package with a variety of effects and editing options. Here is more info:

http://www.thugsatbay.com/zweistein/index.html

Good Luck,
Robert Richmond

[Mungla]

Here is a complete how-to for converting AVI to Divx (MPEG-4). This site has hundreds of how-to guides, the best is the guide on capturing video directly to divx from your capture card. To convert an already captured .avi file, use FlaskMPEG.

http://www.vcdhelper.com/avi2divx.htm

[greenlion]

I've tried both real player and media player - same results for both. It says "Video not available, cannot find vids:div3 decompressor."

[greenlion]

Thanks, I'll try your suggestions

[AuraEdge]

..And where is this windows media encoder?
Does it come with Windows? (I have dualboot Win2k/WinME, so either one will do)

I was looking in WMP7, and in accessories and couldnt find anything.

[RayH]

In playing VCDs with Windows Media Player, I open both WMP and MY Computer and drag the file to the WMP screen. But to play VCDs, I've found Global DiVX Player (a freeware) to be excellent.

[Dave_H]

greenlion- If you can't get to that link that Iain put up, try this codec.
Click link #3 "Kristal Studio DivX Codec" http://www.divx-digest.com/software/divxcodec.html
Dave

[AuraEdge]

Well I tryed FlaskMPEG, which just couldnt open the .AVI
Then I tryed VirtualDub, and that would open it, but it said it couldnt find the decompressor named "PIM1" or something.
Any other ideas?
I dont care if its Divx or not
Ive seen some decent quality trailers that were 2-3 minutes long that were like 5MB, so I know it can be done, but maybe theres no way to do it once its in .AVI

[IFReeman]

AuraEdge, you could give this program I found a go, I havent got a clue how to use it but it is for compressing avi files.
http://www.divx-digest.net/software/encode/CompressAvi104b9.zip

Hope it works.

Regards Iain

[RobRich]

I sometimes use Capture Studio (listed in my above post) for this task. However, most of the time, I use Windows Media Encoder since it offers a simple interface and format. Download MS Media Encoder here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/WM7/encoder.asp

If you just want an extremely simple command line utility with extreme compression support, then you can also try the Windows Media 8 Beta encoder. This format offers excellent compression, even at defualt settings. Copy your AVI file (such as clip.avi) to the created MS 8 encoder directory. Then simplay convert the file with this command:


wm8eutil -input clip.avi -output clip.wmv

You can download the small (~500kb) WM8b2 encoder here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/Download/default.asp?tcode=2#location2

Hope this helps,
Robert Richmond

[AuraEdge]

If I use the WM8Beta Encoder, will I still be able to see it on WMP7?
I want to be able to send this to my friends, and them to be able to see it
Im having a new problem...
I sent this to like 2 of my friends at college, and neither could run it (one had WMP7 and it said it was missing a DLL, but I made his comp for him so I know it wasnt, the other had WMP6, and just kept freezing when he tryed to start it).
Maybe theres some DLL that comes with my TV Tuner that lets me run it, and ppl without it cant. He didnt tell me the name of the DLL he was mising, so I dont know what it is.

The AVI is 198 seconds long, audio takes about 176 Kb/s (PCM, 44.1kHz, 16 bit stereo), Video takes 713 Kb/s (320x240@30fps)
It totals out at 137MB.

My friend suggested that maybe I get a program that can make a frame capture of my current screen (kind of like Hypersnap but a movie instead), and I can just play it thru.
Is that possible? If I could do that, I would kill both problems.


[This message has been edited by AuraEdge (edited 03-18-2001).]

[araaraara]

If you're sending it to someone, why not zip it? Use winace and save it in .ace format. It should shink a bit. This would work good even if you used divx.

[Bleeding Edge]

Have you tried Darim's DVMPEG? www.darvision.com/index.html (http://www.darvision.com/index.html)

I'll drop you line about it.

[AuraEdge]

ZIPping takes off about 5 meg, and took about a minute
RARing doesnt help much either..
It estimated 25 minutes left for RARring, but it was showing less than 2% compression by that point. Im gunna try out WMP7 Encoder and WMP8Beta Encoder and see if either of those work.

[AuraEdge]

WM8Enc turned out this -
ERROR: ICM unable to find a stream handler to fetch decompressed frames!

Did it just like you said

WM7 Enc on the other hand WORKS! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif Do you know if these WMA's will play in WMP6?

Gotta say Im impressed after trying a few settings - At 64Kpbs, the whole thing can fit on a floppy, and you can make out what thier saying, but the image is real blotchy...and you cant fit anything on a floppy these days.
I opted for 768kpbs, and its slimmed down to 13MB
Thats my 1:10 thats not that too lossy on video, and virtually no Audio loss.
Thanks alot everyone!

http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by AuraEdge (edited 03-18-2001).]

[muno]

I read somewhere that if you are able to compress(into zip,rar whatever) a compressed movie(divx,wmv whatever) file then there's something gone wrong badly during the encoding. Logically I would have to agree =)
-M

[RobRich]

If WM7 worked, but WM8 didn't, then it seems your original AVI might not have been in raw format. Perhaps you saved to some older Indeo or Cinepak format during the original capture. WM& will handle the conversion of these formats with little issue, but WM8b2 requires a true uncompressed, raw format file.

Any rate, congrats http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif. WM7 still offers a decent compression to quality ratio. 13mb is a whole lot better than 130+ mb, regardless of the standard being used. As for it playing with the WM6 player, I'm not entirely sure. I haven't used WM6 in quite awhile, but I believe it should automatically download the needed WM7 codec before playing the file, the same as WM7 does for other formats.

Robert Richmond