Video Compressing Software

[Zetec-ss]

right, i record quite a lot of races etc from my Digital Camera.

i record at 640x480 at 30FPS and 2mins of recording at this quality equates to roughly 100mb, i've been told video compression software can reduce this by HUGE amounts but at a price of loss in quality.

what video compression software do you guys recommend that will still hold most of the quality?

how much compression rate will i be lookin at after putting my videos through this software? 50%?

 

[TB]

Is there any format in particular that you are looking to convert to?

 

[Holdenhsvgtsr]

Some times if you upload it to youtube via the raw file you can still watch it in HQ,i normally use windows movie maker and save it is a lan video ether 2.1 or 1.5 and you can watch it in HQ then although its the sound that usually takes the quality hit.

 

[Zetec-ss]

Is there any format in particular that you are looking to convert to?

i'm not really fussed aslong as its played by most players

mpeg, avi, asf, wmv, divx really.

i haven't used Microsoft Movie Maker before. cheers holden might check that out.

whats the compression ratio on average? from say a 100mb file will that be reduced to around 50mb?

 

[Holdenhsvgtsr]

i'm not really fussed aslong as its played by most players

mpeg, avi, asf, wmv, divx really.

i haven't used Microsoft Movie Maker before. cheers holden might check that out.

whats the compression ratio on average? from say a 100mb file will that be reduced to around 50mb?

Cant say,its varies using my digi cam ive had 150mb videos reduced to 30-40mb (songs at gigs) but for the track day bullet cam stuff (usually 9-11min videos) they are 350mb raw and get reduced to between 100-150mb when saving them at Lan 2.1 .

 

[TB]

i'm not really fussed aslong as its played by most players

Give Any Video Converter a look. It hasn't failed my yet. If you'd like another option, go for Dr. Divx.

As for the average compression, there are too many variables involved to say - video size, codec used, bitrate, etc. Bottom line is you'll have to play with it a bit and see.

 

[Aldo]

AVS video tools or DVD Video Soft
both very good
with DVD video soft you can download videos from youtube in addition with everything AVS does

 

[Danoff]

Since I have similar question, I'll use this thread to ask.

I'm interested in finding a lossless compression scheme for videos.

Basically, I have an uncompressed movie on my HDD and I'd like to compress it in a way that doesn't cause the image quality to suffer. I've tried Xvid (with a variety of compression settings), which compresses 8 GB of information into about 700 MB - but the image quality suffers a bit. Is there a better solution?

Does anyone have a favorite compression algorithm or suggested settings?

 

[TB]

Basically, I have an uncompressed movie on my HDD and I'd like to compress it in a way that doesn't cause the image quality to suffer. I've tried Xvid (with a variety of compression settings), which compresses 8 GB of information into about 700 MB - but the image quality suffers a bit. Is there a better solution?

Does anyone have a favorite compression algorithm or suggested settings?

As you already have the video on the hard drive, you'll be able to skip a fair chunk of my instructions, but the rest of it should work for you.

Essentially, use Dr. Divx at a bitrate of 1000 [FONT=&quot]kbps[/FONT] (my instructions say 800 but that isn't quite high enough) and your 8Gb video should come out to around +/- 1.5Gb. A fair chunk larger than you 700 megs, but it'll be much easier on the eyes, too.

 

[Danoff]

As you already have the video on the hard drive, you'll be able to skip a fair chunk of my instructions, but the rest of it should work for you.

Essentially, use Dr. Divx at a bitrate of 1000 [FONT=&quot]kbps[/FONT] (my instructions say 800 but that isn't quite high enough) and your 8Gb video should come out to around +/- 1.5Gb. A fair chunk larger than you 700 megs, but it'll be much easier on the eyes, too.

Thank you. I will try it and report back. 1.5Gb sounds quite a bit better.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Also make sure to keep the resolution of the original, or just don't go too low.

 

[TB]

Also make sure to keep the resolution of the original, or just don't go too low.

Correct. You can crop out the black bars, but don't adjust the dimensions of the video itself.

 

[wfooshee]

whats the compression ratio on average? from say a 100mb file will that be reduced to around 50mb?

It's not really a ratio in the sence that a zip file gets a compression ratio. Different formats are different methods of compression. MPEG2 is the DVD format, 2 hours is roughly 4 or 5 gigabytes, call it 2 or 3 gigabytes per hour. Uncompressed AVI from the camcorder will be about 4 gigs per 20 minutes, or say 12 gigs per hour. Divx can easily get down under a gig for an hour. Keep in mind this is standard def TV video, 720x480 to start with. HD video will be larger file sizes.

You may also encounter H.264 video, used by many HD camcorders. It can put 1080i HD video into about a megabyte per second, call it 4 gigs an hour. At first you think that's no better than MPEG2, but remember I'm talking 1080i HD now, so it's a lot better compression.

So it's not so much that mpeg gives you 4:1 compression, it's just that its method is different and gives smaller files. Other formats that use variants of MPEG4 (divx, wmv, and h.264) give even smaller files.

 

[Danoff]

TB

I tried Dr.Divx with the settings you suggested. It was better than the previous compression attempt, but still not sufficient. It is currently working on giving me a video with the highest quality setting available. If that's not sufficient, I'm starting to think that I just have to put up with the size of the raw data.

 

[TB]

I tried Dr.Divx with the settings you suggested. It was better than the previous compression attempt, but still not sufficient. It is currently working on giving me a video with the highest quality setting available. If that's not sufficient, I'm starting to think that I just have to put up with the size of the raw data.

Is the video you're starting with a .vob from a DVD? If so, I'm assuming that the vob plays and looks clean (ie - like the disc)?

Also, what did the file size come out to after it finished? If it's not too terribly large, you can always up the bitrate of the video past 1000 (hell, you could go to 4000), but the files will obviously get larger. It was my experience that 800 looks blotchy, 1000 came out alright and 1300 didn't appear much different from 1000. But I was also mainly working on the kids animated movies...

Sadly, I still have yet to really sink my teeth into converting my movies over.

 

[Danoff]

Is the video you're starting with a .vob from a DVD? If so, I'm assuming that the vob plays and looks clean (ie - like the disc)?

Yea, I'm starting from the .vob. I haven't tried to play that though - I'll give it a shot this evening.

Also, what did the file size come out to after it finished? If it's not too terribly large, you can always up the bitrate of the video past 1000 (hell, you could go to 4000), but the files will obviously get larger.

I think it was 1.8 GB. I don't mind if it gets larger given that the alternative is 8-9 GB. I'm running it on "Insane" quality mode with a 1300 bitrate at this point. We'll see if that helps.

I'm mainly checking one particular chapter. So if that setting isn't enough, I may just do that chapter at a much higher bitrate to see if I can get a setting that works. I suppose while I'm testing I could also drop the audio track entirely.

It was my experience that 800 looks blotchy, 1000 came out alright and 1300 didn't appear much different from 1000. But I was also mainly working on the kids animated movies...

Sadly, I still have yet to really sink my teeth into converting my movies over.

Well, I'll serve as the guinea pig then. I'm pretty picky about my video, so hopefully if I can find some solid settings they'll work for you.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[TB]

Yea, I'm starting from the .vob. I haven't tried to play that though - I'll give it a shot this evening.

If you don't already have a player that can handle vob's, give VLC a look.

I suppose while I'm testing I could also drop the audio track entirely.

If you aren't changing the audio (leaving it as [FONT=&quot]AC3[/FONT] instead of changing to MP3), it usually goes fairly quickly. But if you're going to be doing this a few times, every second helps.

Well, I'll serve as the guinea pig then. I'm pretty picky about my video, so hopefully if I can find some solid settings they'll work for you.

That wasn't my intention but I'll admit that it's a byproduct I'll happily accept.

Good luck!

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

I'm mainly checking one particular chapter. So if that setting isn't enough, I may just do that chapter at a much higher bitrate to see if I can get a setting that works. I suppose while I'm testing I could also drop the audio track entirely.

I think 2000 and 3000 would be good settings to try.

 

[Danoff]

It appears to be reducing the resolution of my video - which I don't understand. When I play the movie in Windows Media Player Classic, it starts up with a smaller window (horizontal and vertical) than when I play the DVD directly in the same software. Since media player seems to always start in the native resolution of the video, this would indicate that the divx is reduced resolution.

The original image is 720x480. I set the cropping feature to use 720 and it automatically finds 304 as the height. Is there an easy way for me to check that I actually have 720 pixels along the horizontal axis in the final divx? I poked around last night and didn't find it.

I think this may be the root of my problem.

 

[TB]

I forgot that I have Band of Brothers in both vob and divx on my PC here at work, so I might be a bit more help now.

The original image is 720x480. I set the cropping feature to use 720 and it automatically finds 304 as the height. Is there an easy way for me to check that I actually have 720 pixels along the horizontal axis in the final divx? I poked around last night and didn't find it.

The reason it cuts it down from 480 to 304 is because it's removing the black bars, it's not actually resizing anything, provided you have the Aspect Ratio set to Auto and you don't have the Keep Pixel Aspect Ratio box checked. Here is my info for BoB:

The 720 width stays the same, but it's cutting off the black bars, so the height drops from 540 to 416, which is fine. To check the resolution of the divx, start playing it in Divx Player then hit Alt + I.

 

[Danoff]

Well, it's not resizing my video (aside from cropping), despite the way it appears. But the highest quality setting and a bitrate of 3000 isn't quite good enough. It's pretty darn good, don't get me wrong, but it's not good enough for me to want to compress the video. I had to look pretty carefully for artifacts, but I could find them in just about every scene - which makes me want to just leave the compression alone.

So I have a new question - how I can preserve the original compression while putting the VOB's in one file, chopping unnecessary black lines, and getting rid of unnecessary audio tracks?

 

[TB]

Well, it's not resizing my video
*snip*
which makes me want to just leave the compression alone.

Sadly, it's looking like that might be your best bet.

So I have a new question - how I can preserve the original compression while putting the VOB's in one file, chopping unnecessary black lines, and getting rid of unnecessary audio tracks?

New software time! The one you'll be looking for is DVD Shrink. I have the utmost confidence that you'll be able to find and install it.

Once you're past that point, go to Edit --> Preferences and check these settings:

• Under the Preferences tab
  • set it to DVD-9
• Under the Output Files
  • Remove Macro checked
  • Remove P-UOPs checked
  • Remove layer break checked
  • Split VOB NOT CHECKED
• Under the Stream selections tab
  • Audio Language and subpicture language (if desired) to English
  • AC3 or LPCM is up to you
• The other settings are up to you, also

After all the settings are adjusted, you'll need to re-author the disc. This will let you pick out only what you want to keep instead of copying the entire thing. Since there's no point in reinventing the wheel (and I don't currently have a DVD to play with), a walk-through for re-authoring can be found here.

One thing to note - I know this will remove any audio tracks you don't want (French, 2-Channel English, etc.) but what I can't remember is if it keeps the entire movie in one large file or multiple files. I'm inclined to think that that's the point of unchecking the Split box in Properties.

Therein lies the problem of using multiple programs that all do very similar things - they all start to blur together in your mind...

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Well, it's not resizing my video (aside from cropping), despite the way it appears. But the highest quality setting and a bitrate of 3000 isn't quite good enough. It's pretty darn good, don't get me wrong, but it's not good enough for me to want to compress the video. I had to look pretty carefully for artifacts, but I could find them in just about every scene - which makes me want to just leave the compression alone.

i can see why you asked for lossless. You could probably try H.264 and higher bitrates, but it doesn't seem like the returns will be that great for you.

 

[Danoff]

I used DVD shrink yesterday and it seems to have done the job admirably. Reduced the filesize from 8 gigs to 6.5 gigs without doing any compression. I'm pretty happy with the result, and I think I'll use the same setup for other DVDs.

Thanks a lot for all the tips guys. You've been extremely helpful TB. I think, for now, this is the right approach. If you hear about some other form of compression that might suit me better, give me a heads up. 👍

 

[semilife]

Wow thats not very good compression there at all. There are a number of options available to you if you want AVI/mp4 type compression. DivX encoder/Xvid personally I would use Xvid as it is completely free, I beleive you need some sort of paid for licence to encode in DivX. If you encode to either DivX/Xvid most general purpose players will play these including consoles/DVD players etc. To encode to mp4 video you are probably looking at something like Apple quicktime perhaps (dont how wide the support of mp4 is with DVD players though).

There is a website http://www.dvdrhelp.com/ which is completely free and has guides plus links to many tools you need (most tools are free but some you may need to buy). If you dont find a guide or tool here then I dont honestly know of many other places off the top of my head. Hope this helps you.

 

[Danoff]

I just went through a lengthy DivX and Xvid compression evaluation and found that they sacrificed too much image quality to make the compression worthwile (discussed above).

If you know of a lossless compression technique, let me know.

 

[TB]

Thanks a lot for all the tips guys. You've been extremely helpful TB. I think, for now, this is the right approach. If you hear about some other form of compression that might suit me better, give me a heads up. 👍

Happy to help and glad to hear you found one you're happy with. Shame the size couldn't be a bit lower, though. I'll keep my eye's and ear's open and let you know if I come across anything.

Wow thats not very good compression there at all.

That's because it's not compressed at all. The reduction in file size was because of removing the menu, bonus features, extra audio, etc. The movie itself was left completely intact.

 

[Danoff]

New problem.

Apparently there is some sort of filesize limitation on VOBs, because when I go over 10 gigs (two movies joined together), there seems to be some sort of indexing problem. Jumping ahead isn't done correctly, and the total playtime listed isn't right. This happens both in WMP and the Divx player.

I can get around this for now by cutting the movie a bit - but I'm afraid I'm going to hit this again later with another couple of videos. Any thoughts?

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Any thoughts?

You are probably correct, though to be sure I would check if VLC player could run it.

 

[Danoff]

Well, it turns out I was able to keep the filesize to under 10 gb, so I think I'll be safe for the time being. But there's definitely some sort of problem there.

I've been playing around with DVDShrink a little and having fun with the start/end time feature. I'm wondering if anyone knows how to make that feature step by individual frames rather than by groups of frames. So far I haven't been able to figure it out and haven't found it anywhere on the interent. Alternatively if you know how to split a VOB file at a certain frame - that would work. I found a VOB splitting utility that makes you guess how may bits into the file you want to go before it cuts. Not sure that's going to work very nicely.