resizing mpeg 2 files [Archive]

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JulesJH

20th March 2008, 18:40

Hi all,

I'm not sure if this is in the right section of the forum or not, but here goes.

I often send video CD's abroad which have mpeg2 video/audio files burned on them. I have figured that when I record a video, it has to be around a certain length to fit on the CD, but sometimes I run over :-)

Does anyone know of a tool (freeware if possible!) where I can just plug in the amount of compression or some other shrinkage, so that I can always make sure my files are under 700mB? My files are encoded in mpeg2 initially, and are also burned as mpeg2 so no conversion is needed.

Regards,
Jules

smok3

21st March 2008, 09:42

i heard there is a software which ends in shrink and has something to do with dvd (google told me).

Ryu77

21st March 2008, 10:02

i heard there is a software which ends in shrink and has something to do with dvd (google told me).

Yes, but it sounds like he is burning them as data files on a CD. DVD Shrink only deals with standard DVD's.

Hi all,

I'm not sure if this is in the right section of the forum or not, but here goes.

I often send video CD's abroad which have mpeg2 video/audio files burned on them. I have figured that when I record a video, it has to be around a certain length to fit on the CD, but sometimes I run over :-)

Does anyone know of a tool (freeware if possible!) where I can just plug in the amount of compression or some other shrinkage, so that I can always make sure my files are under 700mB? My files are encoded in mpeg2 initially, and are also burned as mpeg2 so no conversion is needed.

Regards,
Jules

CCE (Cinema Craft Encoder) is an excellent mpeg2 encoding application that produces brilliant quality (comparable to production studio quality). However, you will need to learn how to use AVIsynth to frameserve.

TMPGEnc (2,3 or 4) also do a good job of mpeg2 encoding.

Nero also offers this in Nero Vision.

All the above applications allow you to set final file size, meaning allocated bitrate will be adjusted automatically.

Sharc

21st March 2008, 10:25

@JulesJH

You may want to try SVCD2DVD. It should do what you want very easily. Not freeware though.
http://www.svcd2dvd.com/

Or you may try HCenc, a free encoder. It allows to enter the desired file size and adjusts the bitrate accordingly. It's input must be a *.d2s (recommended) or *.avs.
http://www.bitburners.com/hc-encoder/

JulesJH

21st March 2008, 18:34

Thanks guys for the replies, but what I need is to take an existing mpeg2 file on hard disk, then recompress it (resize it) down to under 700mB, then I can burn it myself to CD as another mpeg2 file.

None of the tools mentioned seems to do the job in the way I want it. I suppose I need a variable mpeg2 to mpeg2 encoder where I can set the output file size, rather than the amount of compression, and the program will figure out how much compression the file needs to get it to the size I want.

Anyone got any more ideas?

Jules

setarip_old

21st March 2008, 21:14

@JulesJH

Hi!

1) What is your original source material and what software and procedures are you using to create the MPEG-2 files?

2) Are you limited to CDs, or can you burn DVDs?

JulesJH

21st March 2008, 22:27

Hi setarip_old,

I use an older Cyberlink PowerDirector 3 to capture the video & audio, which will output to .AVI, .DIVX, .mpeg1, and .mpeg2.

Basically, I use PowerDirector to capture, edit etc, then save the file to disk as an .mpeg2 file, then burn it to CD.

My main problem is not so much in how I encode it, but the recipient can only play .mpeg2 files or those that WMP can play :-)

I can burn to DVD with no problems, but she doesn't have a DVD player, only a CD burner in her Windows XP computer. I have successfully got her to see an .mpeg2 encoded video CD, so I know the procedure works :-)

Unfortunately, she is not technically minded at all, otherwise I would probably use different encoding to DVD with far better results!

Jules

setarip_old

21st March 2008, 22:44

Again, what is your original source material?

JulesJH

21st March 2008, 23:00

Hi setarip_old,

Sorry, missed that bit.

The original source material is SVHS video tape, which is PAL encoded. This is then captured on an MSI capture card using aforementioned software.

Jules

Sharc

21st March 2008, 23:29

I think that avidemux (free) can do what you want.
It accepts one or several mpeg2 (or avi, divx, mpeg1 ....) as input and re-encodes it to fit a defined size, e.g. 700MB. The output is mpeg2 (or other) which can be burnt onto a CD finally.
www.avidemux.org

Ryu77

22nd March 2008, 00:47

JulesJH, did you actually try any of the software I mentioned? They all do exactly what you are after.

Here is that list again...

CCE (Cinema Craft Encoder) is an excellent mpeg2 encoding application that produces brilliant quality (comparable to production studio quality). However, you will need to learn how to use AVIsynth to frameserve.

TMPGEnc (2, 3 XPress or 4 XPress) also do a good job of mpeg2 encoding.

Nero also offers this in Nero Vision.

There are others too if you would like me to expand on that list. I hope you do realise that you need to configure these encoders to final file size of 700mb and all should be fine.

Since she has a CD player on her PC, you could also consider DivX to recompress the video. This will play on WMP providing she installs the DivX codec. I am sure she could understand how to install the DivX codec as that is pretty straight forward. You could download the install package for her and put it on one of the CD's along with the next video you make.

JulesJH

22nd March 2008, 03:32

Hi All,

Thanks to everyone for helping me out. I looked at and tried various tools, and avidemux that Sharc recommended came out tops.

It has an fairly simple interface and I can set the video size etc without too many complications. It also does a lot more of what I want which swung the balance in it's favour.

Jules

Ryu77

22nd March 2008, 04:32