Compressing Video

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jesse
  • Start date Start date
J

Jesse

I have a three minute flight video that I would like to
place on a standard CD. So far each time I try to
transfer the files to the CD, I get the notice that the
CD can't hold the files. Is there a way in Movie Maker
II that will let me compress the movie down to fit the CD
without losing any of the data?

Jesse
 
Hi there,

The answer is more or less YES. Not to helpful that. Movie Maker 2 Has a
number of file output options. The top one depending on your viewpoint is
DV-AVI.. DV-AVI in normal circumstances would take up at least 13GB of data
per 60 minutes so 3 minutes would take 0.65GB (650MB) so on an 80Minute CD
(700MB) you should just about squeeze it in. You might just be using the
650MB CD's in which case and because of the small overhead required by the
CD's file system you will not get 650MB of data onto a 650MB disc.

MM2 can also export using a variety of size/data rate configurations to
the Microsoft WMV format. Using the best WMV format of 2.1Mb/s you will with
great ease get your video to fit on a CD and with little if any loss of
quality. You can also use the Windows Media Encoder to customise the WMV
format so that you maximise the quality...going to far overboard with that
results in very large files.....

If it is your intention to edit this saved video at a later time, it is
considered best practice to save in the highest possible quality
available...DV-AVI

Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
 
PapaJohn....I'm still fairly new at this and I'm not sure
what format I am using. If you are familiar with
Microsoft Flight Sim FS9, when I make a flight, I can
record the video for playback later. I have a small
program called 'Fraps' that takes my inflight video and
converts it to .avi files....I think. It is this .avi
file that I am trying to convert with Moviemaker II, but
I think I am missing something.

Jesse
 
Thanks for the response, John. I'm not too familiar with
the different files available for Moviemaker II, but as I
told Papajohn in the above reply, I'm recording my
inflight videos for later playback. It is my
understanding that 'Fraps' takes the recorded files and
converts them to .avi files. I'm not sure about this.
It seems to me the .avi files are quite large. BTW, the
CDs that I am using are Memorex CD-R at 700MB or 80
minutes.

Jesse
 
Jesse,

Here's a copy of my personal notes about FRAPS

9/24/03 - game screen capture app - saves still images or AVI files.

All PC's can perform screen capture. The only requirement is for the game to
be running in 16-bit or 32-bit color mode. Some older games run in 8-bit
(256 color) mode and are not supported by this software.

Fraps saves the screenshots in uncompressed bitmap (BMP) format. This is
done so that people can get an exact representation of what's on screen with
no loss of detail. If you are intending to place the images on the internet
or transfer them to friends, then you should convert them to the lossy JPEG
(JPG) format which is much smaller. Conversion is generally done by opening
the BMP file in a paint program and saving it as a new image of JPG type.
There are also programs that can do batch conversions for a large number of
images.

Why is the AVI movie generated by Fraps so big? How can I reduce the size?

The filesize is big because there isn't enough time to encode the movie
while the game is running. The movie frames are slightly compressed, but
still require a large amount of disk space due to the high resolutions. Once
you have finished capturing you should convert the saved AVI into one of the
popular compressed movie formats such as mpeg or divx. Recommended programs
for doing this are tmpgenc (Tsunami Mpeg Encoder), and VirtualDub.

Using VirtualDub is quite easy. To create a compressed version of the AVI
follow these steps:

Start VirtualDub
Select File->Open and choose the AVI in the Fraps directory you wish to
compress.
Select Video->Compression and choose the codec you wish to compress with
(usually divx)
Select File->Save As AVI and specify a filename for the new AVI.
If you have Windows XP you can also use Windows Movie Maker to compress the
video files. If you use Windows Movie Maker it's recommended that you keep
your Fraps video files at 640x480 or under.

--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org

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