Reducing the file size of an avi

[KristenK]

I've tried searching the forums, but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for...

I have a 22 minute DivX 5.05 file with 160kbps audio that is 350MB. What is the best method to re-encode this to a 233MB file or 175MB file if a) I want to preserve the audio as is, and b) I want to re-encode the audio to 128kbps?

I previously tried using GordianKnot to create a new avs file (since I also wanted to crop the file better) and then using both DivX and XviD I tried a two pass encode. The first pass completed, but the second pass always failed either way. I tried a few other ways, but was left with a file that I couldn't control the size, very poor video, or no sound. Can anyone help?

[killingspree]

hi and welcome to the forum,
actually gknot wasn't the owrst decision you could make. anyway, i guess you have some internal problem with virtualdubmod. are you sure you are using the modified vdubmod version that comes with gordianknot?

anyway, an alternative would be to do the bitrate and resizing calculations in gknot, then save the avs file , take it and load it into vdubmod manually, do both passes with the bitrate and divx/xvid settings you specifiy manually and encode. afterwards remux.
if you want to reencode the audio, extract it, run it through besweetgui!

hope this helps
steVe

[KristenK]

Thanks, I tried using VirtualDubMod this time around...previously I used the original VirtualDub because I had to remove VirtualDubMod after some system problems which hopefully don't come back. This time it came out just fine, so I guess that was the problem.

[KristenK]

I also tried out BesweetGui for the first time, but I couldn't see how to re-encode the 160kbps mp3 to 128kbps. Can it be used to do that? Will I have to either use another program, or worst case...decompress it to a wav and re-encode it?

[killingspree]

hi,
glad reencoding worked this time :)

to your besweet problem: you can load an mp3. just in the open dialog box, in the upper right corner, you have to switch the input type from .ac3 to .mp3. afterwards just use the lame settings to your likeings (e.g. --alt -preset 128 in your case) and encode...

steVe

[Teegedeck]

Perhaps it could also help (if you want to preserve perceived quality as much as possible) if you resized the video to a smaller resolution and used ogg vorbis for the audio (the streaming-preset - "q=0" - springs to my mind).