# Converting/downsizing AVI files



## fredtgreco

I am trying to take relatively large avi files (about 100MB per minute) produced by my Canon digital camera in video mode and put them in a "share friendly" format.

There should be a way to reduce the size of the file even as an AVI, or else convert it to WMV.

Can anyone help? Grandma wants to see a video of her grandson's speech.


----------



## danmpem

Download this. It's called SUPER Video Converter, and the installation file comes with all the codecs you're going to need. It's amazing.


----------



## Semper Fidelis

fredtgreco said:


> I am trying to take relatively large avi files (about 100MB per minute) produced by my Canon digital camera in video mode and put them in a "share friendly" format.
> 
> There should be a way to reduce the size of the file even as an AVI, or else convert it to WMV.
> 
> Can anyone help? Grandma wants to see a video of her grandson's speech.



Fred,

Does Grandma have an Internet Connection? The easiest way to share video online is Youtube.

I have some old mini-DV tapes that I need to get un-lazy about and convert them to DVD's. I usually use Pinnacle Studio that allows real-time conversion of the AVI into the format you want as well as allowing you to chapter it and arrange it.

AVI itself is a lossless format so you're not going to reduce that much with that format but converting it into MPEG2 or MPEG4 will allow you to get smaller files. I still wouldn't want to e-mail those files to anyone. That's why, if I intend to share short clips, it's easy to just upload to Youtube and then share the link. Youtube does a good job of compressing.

If you want to actually share a full length "movie" then use Pinnacle to create a DVD for Grandma.


----------



## Poimen

I can't believe it. Fred Greco, the computer guru, is asking a technical question. What? Its not April 1???


----------



## fredtgreco

SemperFideles said:


> fredtgreco said:
> 
> 
> 
> I am trying to take relatively large avi files (about 100MB per minute) produced by my Canon digital camera in video mode and put them in a \"share friendly\" format.
> 
> There should be a way to reduce the size of the file even as an AVI, or else convert it to WMV.
> 
> Can anyone help? Grandma wants to see a video of her grandson's speech.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Fred,
> 
> Does Grandma have an Internet Connection? The easiest way to share video online is Youtube.
> 
> I have some old mini-DV tapes that I need to get un-lazy about and convert them to DVD's. I usually use Pinnacle Studio that allows real-time conversion of the AVI into the format you want as well as allowing you to chapter it and arrange it.
> 
> AVI itself is a lossless format so you're not going to reduce that much with that format but converting it into MPEG2 or MPEG4 will allow you to get smaller files. I still wouldn't want to e-mail those files to anyone. That's why, if I intend to share short clips, it's easy to just upload to Youtube and then share the link. Youtube does a good job of compressing.
> 
> If you want to actually share a full length "movie" then use Pinnacle to create a DVD for Grandma.
Click to expand...


Rich,

The YouTube option is the best one. I am just trying to get short videos to relatives. I can convert them to Divx, and that decreases the size considerable (from 300MB to 20MB), but then they are still hard to email/send (free file sharing sites are often to complicated for the inexperienced) and then I have to make sure they have the Divx codec installed.

So here is my first try and converting Divx (for upload size) and then uploading to YouTube:

[video=youtube;6M4cswqBrL0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M4cswqBrL0[/video]


----------



## aleksanderpolo

I use webshots (used to use stage6 for high def Divx, but they close the site ), and I found that the quality of the video displayed to be pretty good. Plus you can put photo album in it, grandma and relatives love it.

For video conversion I use virtualdub, which is quite flexible and you can adjust the level of compression. I use it in conjunction with Avi2DVD (both free software) to convert my canon avi (mjpeg codec, huge file!) to DVD. Again, Grandma loves it!


----------

