AVI to Moeg or Mov

[Voltaire]

Hi Folks
Working on an AVI File that was supplied by the customer that came in at 562MB, this file is going to be used in Macromedia Director and must fit on a 700 MB CD, no problem on the PC. I just import the File and attach my Programming commands. Now I haave a problem because the customer wants this on am Macintosh. I realize that I have to try to create an MPEG or Quicktime file for the mac. So after 29 Hours using cleaner 5 to re-encode the AVI to Mpeg, I came up with a 1.5Gig file that's too big and after another 27 hours trying for a quicktime, I got an even bigger file. Next I went to Vegas Vieo and still the file size was way too big. I investigated the AVI and found these settings

Video: 640X480, Sample Size 24 Bits, Frame Rate, 30,Compression DivxPro 5.03, duration 1 Hour 23 Min
Audio:Bitrate 123, Frequency:48Hz.

Now I realize I can go down to 41 Hz for my Audio and 15 for my Frame Rate. but I tried those in cleaner and still the size of the file is over a Gig.

Can someone here hint me in the right Direction how to get an Mpeg or Quicktime down to 600MB.
J

[Neo Neko]

First of all what do they require from the final version? Does it have to be 640x480? Resizing can save alot of space. If that is not an option have you tried using VBR? Depending on the nature of the footage VBR can make all the difference. The Tsunami MPEG encoder is the best I have found for that. Fianlly did they put a limit on the quality. Considdering that the original weighs in at 500Mb and it is in a much more moddern codec sacrifices must be made.

[Voltaire]

Yes they do require everything back and yes it has to be 640 X480. I have found a cool little converter AVS Video Converter that I re-encoded the avi to a MPEG4 codec that quicktime would understand. I am about to do the conversion shortly so I'll get back to you with the results.

[Voltaire]

Okay Folks, I solved my problem in converting an AVI to Quicktime and it was easier that I can imagine and I think I should share it here with you good folks because this is where I learned about Video.

Anyway as I said in my previous post, I had an hour and 15 minute 640 X480 AVI from a client that was a basic training video. My task was to make an execuatable application so I used macromedia Director. Nothing fancy, just links to about 5 different areas of the video and some text and web links on the "About' page. No poblem on the PC, I simply imported the AVI into Director and did my programming there to different Queue points in the video. I did not even check the video until later but it was 565MB so it would fit on a regular CD. A few days later I got a call from the client telling me he wants 400 copies for the Mac.
No problem there I was thinking, just port the codes to the Mac and compile. Well as soon as I tried to play the AVI on the mac, Quicitime gave me a nasty message. So I went to cleaner and tried to re-encode to MOV, it took 29 hours and a wopping 1.4 Gigi file. After all that time I still had nothing to show.

I stuck gold just after I posted here, I downloaded a little program ($29) AVS Video Converter and though I should re-do the client's AVI. Sure enough, AVS Video Converter broke the AVI up and I saw that the Video was set at 123 bitrate. Now I realized that the client's audio was wrong. No wonder when I opened this AVI in vegas Video, there was no audio track. Anyway I re-encoded the avi with AVSVideoConverter, using he MEG 4 settings which corrected the audio bitrate, thus allowing quicktime to read it. Oh! the AVI was not 491MB and better quality that even an Mpeg done with Tmeg or CCE.

There was one more stop I had to make, and this was because I wanted a Quicktime. I then uesed the freeware program DivX Doctor II which did an excellent job of converting the AVI to a bright crispy MOV file.

So all in all I gained big time. It took AVS Video Converter 2.5 hours to clean the client's AVI and reduced the file size from 565MB to 490MB. It took 29 Hours for cleaner 5 to do that. Then to top it off DivX Doctor II 23 minutes to write me a mov file and in the process my file size even got smaller on the mac, as the MOV file was 478MB. Gosh this was some week. So folks if you are working in video, sooner you are going to get a quicktime file, no doubt about that. Sure I have Premier 6.5, After effecrs, Final Cut Pro, Vegas Video, Tmeg, Honestech, and all kinds of stuff but in the end it was a $29 program that made this job happen.

DivX Doctor II is available here:http://doctor.3ivx.com/
AVS Video Converter is available here:http://www.avsmedia.com/VideoConverter.

The job is not done, on the way to the the CD duplicators, and on Friday would be shipped out to Texas. Had it not been for these two programs, I would not be looking for my check on Monday.
J