program and/or setting to encode xvid

[somebody123]

Hi
I have some XviD AVI files which I want to make a few MBs smaller.
What's the best tool to do so?
I tried VirtualDub, with Fast recompress, default XviD settings with target bitrate (around 925kbps, 640x480 resolution), and two passes, but the output was blocky and a lot worse than the original (when zoomed).
I also tried using Quarter Pixel but that didn't help much.
I used Koepi's XviD 1.0.3.

The video is anime episode. But I find that using cartoon mode actually makes it a bit worse.

Thank you.

By the way, from the FAQ:
"8. What filter should I use to play back XviD encoded videos?

The two main filters of choice are:
Nic's XviD DShow Filter ( http://nic.dnsalias.com )
or
Milan's FFDShow ( http://sourceforge.net/project/show...?group_id=53761 )"

Is the Koepi built not preferred??

[unskinnyboy]

Of course, when you reencode and further compress an already compressed file, the quality will go south. Not a good thing. Don't think QPEL is of any use here.

How few is 'few'? Few MBs as in 4-5 MBs? If you don't care about standalone compatibility of the .avis, you can use AVI-Mux GUI in low-overhead mode which should bring down about 4-5 MBs on a ~700 MB file. Or if this is like a movie use VirtualDub to cut off some frames at the end (e.g: long scrolling credits). Depending on the I-frame interval settings you used while encoding, you should be able to shed a few MBs.

P.S: If all the effort is to write onto a CD-R or something, try overburning the CD.

OT: Why the oversize in the first place?

[somebody123]

The files are 180-200MB each (about 23 minutes each) and I want to make it 175MB so 4 of them can fit on a CD.. but I didn't think about putting them on CD when I first encoded them. I used AutoGK to rip and it can do a single pass if I don't specify the file size.

I tried using DivX... the result actually looks better than XviD... :D
There are a lot less visible squares with DivX, although the image is more blurry than the original.
Just out of curiosity, is there a setting in XviD to achieve this kind of effect? I realise there is a "blur" filter in VirtualDub, but is there a setting within the encoder?

Thanks.

[Sharktooth]

Use H.263 quant type. If that's not enaugh "blurry" use a low bitrate custom matrix or apply some filtering before encoding.
Just learn how to use AviSynth and filters.

[Mentalmummy]

You could convert them to matroska, which has much lower overhead than the avi format and this would reduce some of the filesize.

Recompressing the audio to a lower rate may get a little more space, though not much, and as already said earlier cutting the titles helps :)

I`m suprised Xvid is blockier for your encodes though, I switched to Xvid because I found it less blocky though I prefer not to use Adaptive Quantisation as to me it does look blockier on some films.