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To my knowledge, the best codec for small and high quality encoding would be DivX.

If you need any help with encoding or conversions, post your questions here and I'll help ^^

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Thanks! I'm actually using the 5.0.2 divX codec with an ATI video recorder. That was the smallest I could get it but it still seems rather large even at a 320x240 resolution and quality moved close to minimum. Should I be directly encoding to divX avi, or converting to divX after encoding in mpeg or something like that?

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Thanks! I'm actually using the 5.0.2 divX codec with an ATI video recorder. That was the smallest I could get it but it still seems rather large even at a 320x240 resolution and quality moved close to minimum. Should I be directly encoding to divX avi, or converting to divX after encoding in mpeg or something like that?


Sorry, I've never used the ATI Video Recorder before. What format does it capture your movies into?
Generally, it's better to go through less conversions to create better quality files. So the best situation would be:

capture footage at full resolution convert to divx and resize with divx

Encoding bitrate : the lower the value the smaller the file

Multi-pass encoding : set fewer keyframes, or if you dare, none at all (but it'll make scrubbing/seeking very slow)
If you have the time, use the User-specified keyframe insertion feature.

enable Global Motion Compensation (GMC) if you footage has lots of pans/zooms. Good for anime ^^

Under Data Rate Control Parameters (RC): increase your quantizer value, but the quality will suffer. Eg, for a really small video size, use something like
Min:10 Max:20

RC Down/Up Reaction : the lower the value the smaller the size gets

set RC Averaging Period to half of the frames of the movie you are encoding.
for PAL movies: 1 second: 25 frames
for NTSC movies: 1 second : 29.97 frames

Audio: um, I like to use Ogg/Vorbis. Generally, just lower the quality for smaller files (8bit mono output). Can make a big difference!

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[this message was edited by Radish on Wed 7 Aug 09:48]

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Wow! Thanks for all that. My recorder seems to be very bare bones because the only feature you listed that I have is to change the bitrate. ATI can capture staright to divX encoder AVI (or MP1 or MP2 but those are much larger) but I don't think it's compressing entirely correctlty.

Can you suggest a good program to use to encode or convert files? I've been searching through the divX site and I couldn't find anything that compressed stuff other than programs that ripped DVDs.

Thanks again!

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Wow! Thanks for all that. My recorder seems to be very bare bones because the only feature you listed that I have is to change the bitrate. ATI can capture staright to divX encoder AVI (or MP1 or MP2 but those are much larger) but I don't think it's compressing entirely correctlty.

Can you suggest a good program to use to encode or convert files? I've been searching through the divX site and I couldn't find anything that compressed stuff other than programs that ripped DVDs.

Thanks again!


Hmm, I use DivX 5.02 pro so it has all those nifty features.
If your ATI can't seem to access all those features, I guess the second best solution is to:

1) capture and output as an uncompressed AVI. Warning! the filesize can be really really huge 0_o;;
2) use Virtual Dub (http://www.virtualdub.org/) and Gordian Knot (http://gknot.doom9.org/) to convert the AVI to DivX.

There's a good AVI DivX guide in the GKnot help page:
Uncompressed AVI to DivX Guide

Oops! Some wrong advice from me in my previous post ^^;;
Remember this warning:

"Q: Can I encode my audio at less than 48
kHz if I am aiming for a really small file
size ?

A: No - or don't be surprised if you get bad
results. It can cause synch issues when you
go to mux ( combine ) the audio and video
files together and also Gordian Knot may not
calculate the size of the file
correctly."

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Sweet. I'll download those and see if that helps. Thanks for all the help!

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