Shrinking a show to fit on CD

[geogecko]

I'm using the DVD quality (or something, it's 2.4GB per hour) setting in Sage, this show is going to be around 2.4GB when finished.

My question, is what is the best way to shrink that down to be able to fit on a CD. The quality doesn't have to be that great (VHS should be good enough), but I need a way to do it.

Is there something in Windows (Movie Maker) that will allow me to do this? I don't want to buy any software to accomplish this, nor have to spend a week learning how to do it.

Any suggestions?

[stanger89]

Why a CD? What is the target playback device?

[robk]

If you want to spend $20 (they offer a free trial), try the Divx converter. (www.divx.com) It compresses the video incredibly with little loss of quality, some newer DVD players will play it, or any computer with Divx decoders (free) will play it using the free Divx player. Hope that helps.
Rob

[geogecko]

The target playback device is a computer which is not connected directly to my network, and I don't have a DVD burner yet...

It would be easier if I could just play it using Window's Media Player, as that should already be on the target computer.

Thanks for any assistance.

[stanger89]

Why not just play it over the network.

[robk]

Stanger, he said:
"The target playback device is a computer which is not connected directly to my network" , that's why I suggested Divx.
Rob

[stanger89]

Missed the not.

[mightyt]

Originally Posted by geogecko

The target playback device is a computer which is not connected directly to my network, and I don't have a DVD burner yet...

It would be easier if I could just play it using Window's Media Player, as that should already be on the target computer.

Thanks for any assistance.

Another possible low cost option for you may be ... Use a couple of Blank CD's ... Open the MPEG in Movie Maker and split the movie in two. Use your CD burning software to burn VCD's (700mb CD's will record 68 min. of video). VCD is more like VHS Quality. For a full length movie you have to switch disks, but that's your trade off for a cheap, no added cost solution (other than cheap blank CD's) ... By the way, if you open your MPEG in Movie Maker you might as well dump the commercials, unless of course you are using ComSkip.

T.

[geogecko]

Sorry about that, should have said NOT!

Good point about the VCD's. Might have to give that a shot. I'm new to Movie Maker, so I'll try it out, and see what I can do with it.

[mightyt]

Originally Posted by geogecko

Sorry about that, should have said NOT!

Good point about the VCD's. Might have to give that a shot. I'm new to Movie Maker, so I'll try it out, and see what I can do with it.

You did say NOT ... I think Stanger accidentally read over it ..

[thatdude90210]

For a free software solution, try AutoGK (link). It's easy to use, you can do a batch of files at a time, and even have it shut down the computer after finish (good for processing overnight).

[geogecko]

Okay, MM pretty much sucks. When I try and add the 2GB file to the "storyline" or whatever, it will only add it as an audio track. I think the file is too big for MM to deal with.

Hmm...have AutoGK installed, am currently tring to use it.

It only allows the file to be saved as .AVI? Will the other computer need a special codec to play the resulting file?

[geogecko]

Oh, I see in "Advanced Options" that I will need XviD or DivX 5...

Maybe I can just put that on the CD as well.

[dvd_maniac]

no divx required!!!
AutoGK comes with the free (open source) Xvid codec. Which a lot of people prefer quality wise over Divx. And for added benefit AutoGK comes with VirtualDub which is IMHO the easiest and fastest way to remove commercials.

As far as playablility, just install the xvid codec or even the AutoGK program and then WMP will play it just fine. I have well over 1000 episodes in the xvid format using AutoGK because of quality and ease of use.

[geogecko]

Where's the option of VirtualDub? Is it normal that it takes VERY long to encode a file from 2GB to about 75MB? It seems to keep rescanning or something, as it gets close to finishing, it starts over again? What's the deal there?

[thatdude90210]

AutoGK basically automates several apps. The rescanning thing is it's doing 2-pass encoding (for better quality).

It takes about a couple of hours for each video, that's why it's best to batch process overnight. And the rule of thumb for keeping decent quality is at least 350MB per 45 minutes (w/o commercials) show. And I edit out the commercials with VideoRedo (it's not free though) before using AutoGK.

[mightyt]

Originally Posted by geogecko

Okay, MM pretty much sucks. When I try and add the 2GB file to the "storyline" or whatever, it will only add it as an audio track. I think the file is too big for MM to deal with.

Hmm...have AutoGK installed, am currently tring to use it.

It only allows the file to be saved as .AVI? Will the other computer need a special codec to play the resulting file?

Not sure what version you are using but 2.1 is out ... It can be had with Windows XP SP2 as well ...

Anyway, the help file says ...

Supported file types
You can add content to your Windows Movie Maker project either by capturing content directly in Windows Movie Maker or by importing existing digital media files. The content you capture in Windows Movie Maker is saved in Windows Media Format. However, you can also import existing Windows Media-based content as well as other common file formats.

You can import files with the following file name extensions into Windows Movie Maker to use in your project:

Audio files: .aif, .aifc, .aiff .asf, .au, .mp2, .mp3, .mpa, .snd, .wav, and .wma

Picture files: .bmp, .dib, .emf, .gif, .jfif, .jpe, .jpeg, .jpg, .png, .tif, .tiff, and .wmf

Video files: .asf, .avi, .m1v, .mp2, .mp2v, .mpe, .mpeg, .mpg,

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/d...viemaker2.mspx

That Being said, I did find these ...

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e...4-24e03a143c5a

http://www.papajohn.org/

Not sure if the problem is in 2.1 or earlier versions or all ...

T.

[nielm]

warning: latest versions of autoGK contain adware (but it is removable from control panel)

Standalone Xvid codec (for playback on the other computer) is available at http://www.koepi.org/

[geogecko]

Interesting that you found out about the audio only problem. I may need to read deeper into that issue to solve the problem.

350MB, huh? Wow. I was hoping to be able to store several episodes on one disc. But, you bring up an important point. This morning, I played the resulting 40MB file, and since video width was set to "auto" it resized the video to about 3"! Going full screen was a mistake!

Looks like I'll have to bump it up to 350MB for file size, and keep the width fixed at 640. That would at least let me get two shows on a disc.

What is the name that shows up in control panel, add/remove programs for the adware? Wasn't it just two or three letters? I forgot about that getting added. That really stinks...I need to make a note of that in my install folder, so I don't forget about it.

I was using 1.95, I think, then I downloaded the latest beta version, 2.17 or 2.18 or something.

[nielm]

AutoGk Adware was in versions 1.95 onwards: "DAE" or "targetresponse"
http://www.divx-digest.com/software/autogk.html

I use 700Mb/1CD for most 1.5 - 2hr movies with 96Kbit CBR audio and auto-resize...

Xvid compresses to reasonably good quality at about 0.25 bits/pixel as a rule of thumb, so:

640x480x30fps=9216000 pixels/sec
x0.25bpp=2304000 bits/sec
/8/1024/1024=.0274Mbytes/s
x60x60=988Mb/hr

Add on 42Mbytes/hr for 96Kbps audio...

Making AutoGk compress to anything significantly less 1CD/hr will mean that it will need to shrink the video otherwise the quality will be appalling

You can see the target frame size in AutoGk logging after the compression test and audio encoding is done:
eg: for a 2-CD compress of a 2hr movie: Chosen resolution is: 608x464 ( AR: 1.31 )