Making things smaller (divX settings)

mmmhuh.

I use a prog called Dr. DivX to encode my vids with DivX. It has lots of good features including an option to manually set the size of the file (ie - if you want a 10MB video, just type in 10MB and it will come out that size) as well as audio compression settings. Has lots of other stuff as well. Worth the money (or time downloading) IMO.

What I do (to not only encode but also deinterlace) is Ill capture/edit the video all up in Adobe and export it as an MPEG in VCD format. This gets rid of the interlacing junk as well as makes the file smaller. Then Ill import that into Dr. DivX which will get the file to the exact size/quality I want it. Might be a round about way of doing things but Im self taught and it works for me

Personally, I like XviD, which is an open source mpeg-4 codec and pretty cross-compatible with DivX5 (if someone has DivX codec installed, it'll play XviD and vice versa). For some reason I've had corruption issues if I try to compress directly from Premiere Pro 1.5 on my machine, so I found it worked best if I output as uncompressed video and then use VirtualDub.

Then import into VirtualDub. Change the audio to Full Processing and mp3 as the compression (there's several free mp3 codecs if you don't already have one). Then select XviD as the video compression.

You have two main options there, either single-pass or two-pass. If you have one continuous scene (or just want simplicity), single-pass is the easiest. A bitrate of around 1500 is nice for 640(720)x480 type video.

For two-pass, you select Pass 1 first and select what file size you want. Then you save the avi with "process later" checked. Then you change to Pass 2 and do the same thing. Then open the Job Control window and start it up. What that does is analyze the content of the video and spread out the compression where it is needed most.

If your video is DV, be sure you de-interlace or else you'll get weird comb type effects in places of high motion. You probably want to do this in Premiere if you're going to use text overlays or special effects. If you de-interlace after the video is done, it'll reduce the resolution of the text and make it look worse. I forget the exact method, but I think you can right-click each clip on the timeline and tell it to de-interlace it. Kind of a pain if you have a lot of clips, but seems to work well.

And yeah, tmpgenc is definitely the way to go for mpeg-1 compression. mpeg-1 is still more of a standard than divx or xvid, and so is probably the most compatible format, but not as efficient for compression.

thank-you so much shawn

that is exactly what was happening to me and i was getting very frustrated that none of the changes i made seemed to make any difference - it didn't matter what compression i tried to use, premiere would horribly corrupt the video upon rendering.

i'm using divx at the moment but have heard from several people now that xvid is the better way to go.
your suggestions were perfect and as i already had virtualdub i managed to compress nice and quickly first go

will try multipass compression this weekend.

a couple more questions if anyone fancies a stab:

1. am i right in saying that if i have an avi and compress it using xvid that i should change the file extension from .avi to .mpeg or .mpeg4?

2. does virtualdub have a function to reduce video size or should i use premiere to reduce when i produce the uncompressed file?

video coming *real* soon


cole. x

nice thread

i might actually manage to produce a video now.

Help! u know me and tha search function are not goood friends

Anyway, i was wondering...i have a problem. I have an underground fire party video online and wanted to send it to the guy who's party it was. Problem is, i didnt realize he has OSX! :P And he cant view it

Do i need to convet it into quicktime? I HATE qtime with a vengance! I do not want to buy quicktime pro. Should i just convert into divx? Like Icon was saying with the Dr divx?

Thats what most of you Mac users use huh, divx? Unless you can tell me an eaiser way to change the file from .wmv into .mov without buying qtime pro.

(I know it's a bit late but still)

I just checked a few video files with my iBook (OSX Panther installed with no video codec things added) and it doesn't like .avi files one bit, even with the ISO standard mpeg-4 that should be playable everywhere.

.mpeg files do work in quicktime though, so you should be OK encoding into an mpeg format, and your friend won't need to go installing codec packs (which i think cost money for macs).

If you can get Linux installed (or OpenBSD, it's a lot easier because of the excellent manuals) you can use the free command line mplayer/mencoder suite to transcode between pretty much any video and audio formats. Makes all the windows video software look crap. I tried tmpgenc / virtualdub / flask / gordian_knot / xmpeg / nandub and they all crash on files that mencoder just does, and a lot faster I might add. The best bit about Unix is it never crashes

Cheers m8. The original file WAS .mpeg! Doh! I should be able to handle that. ty.

On the other hand dont you think that converting my OS to linux, just for a video, is a lil over kill thanks again

moja problem:

I have just edited my first REAL video in Premier Pro and as far as i can see it's looking pretty damn fine... it also just happens to be a poi video so this is not off topic ... but i have attempted to compress it to mpeg format but this has made it look shitty and besides that it's still 47.7mb!! Now figuring i have a fast connection, it's just five minutes and there is unlimited webspace available, but it STILL will take 60 minutes to upload, then this is not so good for internet, nej? I don't think we have this DIVx programme, or at least i can't find it on this computer, unless it's attached to premiere?.... so is it reasonable to assume i should be able to get it smaller with premiere?.... can someone help?!?

NOn, please compress your audio stream too!
Dr Div-X will quickly compress your exported file into a lithe little div-x .avi file, even as a trail version.

If you have your heart set on exporting directly to div-x from Premiere (thus avoiding generational loss) then you'll have to download a div-x encoder codec.
most people only download the decoder for Div-x, as they only need to watch, not author div-x video.
if you wish to adopt this method, then download div-x 'create' bundle and follow the premiere export instructions at:
http://www.divx.com/divx/create/divxpro/guides/premiere.php

bill

k. another begging help thing, possibly not entirely divx related:

my camera records stuff as an mpg, at 25 fps, 640x480. for some unfathomable reason, when i try play it in windows media player, or edit it in win movie maker (v2), it only comes up as being about half the length it actually is (eg 4 sec. film becomes 1.3 seconds). Id doesn't screw up the framerate or anything, and it plays right through. The problem comes when i try save it from WMM, as it only saves the 1.3 seconds worth, and ditches the last half.

Any ideas, reasons, solutions, alternatives?

I have adobe premiere, but have similar troubles, except that messes with the framerate instead.

erm please do a search on WMV video conversion. there are programs that can cleanly convert from this compact but lossy format. you don't get much choice as Micro$oft want to restrict doing so and have threatened developers that provide such tools

cool, thanks, i will it a try.... if it works my video will be online soon

.. and if it doesn't, i'll release that cage of angry monkies dangling precariously above my head!
:firmly grips release rope:

gah... might as well release the monkeys, that video will not be online anytime soon as the source files for premiere were deleted and so i can't re-export with this DiVx thingymajig because the video is not there!!

I do have two copies though, the mpeg and a .m2v file... if i squash that one with this programme, will it come out really really shitty??!

I'm back.... DivX... is a seperate format? or so i understand...? is it wise to use it a lot if say for example you had vague plans to produce an online portfolio type thing that may or may not include video depending on how well i get the hang of this malarkey? Or....

what i am currently doing is testing the ability of windows media encoder to convert my (formerly .m2v, now...) .VOB file into WMV so that it compresses and can be broadcast on the web (as i noticed a lot of downloadable vids are .wmv) so hopefully the quality will be reasonably ok as it seems to be on a lot of others... what do people feel about this format compared to the divX?

is this the right thread or should i post a new one?

ARGH!! videos!! (i've spent a lot of time on www.videohelp.com today, and it's f*cked me up even more... *insert frustrated head banging smiley here*)

oh yes, and this is offcially the fourth programme i have tried today for this purpose... better bloody work. and that was only after repeated attempts to build a dvd with adobe encore only for it to go through all the motions and not record anything... do people who work with video regularly go insane?? *sigh* rant over...