OK, here we go.
First, download
this file, unzip it, and install the program. It is called the H.264 Auto Encoder. It turns AVI and WMV files into an
.MKV file.
When videos are encoded from raw AVI files, you have three main factors that determine quality and size: the encoder (ie xvid, dvix), the codec (ie ffdshow), and the container (ie wmv, mov, avi, mkv).
To make the smallest movie files possible, download the
CCCP and use the ffdshow codec, the xvid encoder (dvix is just a name brand software version of xvid...don't buy dvix), and do your original export in WMV. I have Adobe Premiere for video editing/rendering/exporting, but there are other, cheaper, simpler, and even free alternatives. Use whatever you can get your hands on.
Once you have a WMV file of your video, run the auto-encoder I linked at the top. Choose your wmv as an input, pick a filename for your output, check the box for "Audio is included in the video file", turn the speed all the way down, leave the quality setting around medium (you can set it super high, but the difference between that and medium are not noticeable to the human eye), then hit go.
There are alternative options (ie Staxrip) for encoding to MKV, but the one I linked is the most user friendly by far.
This encode to MKV will take a long time, just set it before you go to bed or work or whatever.
To play these back, I recommend
MPlayer, but VLC, or even Windows Media Player, should be able to handle them if you have the CCCP linked above, and you have a fast enough computer.
The Autoencoder and GUI were created by gamers for making game videos smaller so they could be shared via the interwebs. To give you an idea, the last time I used this I turned a 993MB (7MB short of a gig) file into 225MB, so about 75% reduction in size with near lossless quality.
Best of luck, let me know if you have any questions, I'll do my best.
Saxon
Oh, he's very popular Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, waistoids, dweebies, * - they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude.