Convert avi to... what?

[woot7800GT]

Okay, I'm going to make a short HL2 video using footage captured using Fraps. Fraps saves all the captures in avi format. I'm going to either use Windows Movie Maker or Pinnacle Studio 9 to edit the video. Question: What format should I convert all the fraps captures into to save disk space and to be easier to work with in the video editor, and what (free) program should I use to convert them? Thanks.

 

[H4x3r]

probably divx or xvid...and try virtual dub...

 

[woot7800GT]

I have virtual dub and it lists a bunch of file types I've never heard of. I don't want a type that needs any sort of special codec.

 

[Shannon]

if it's saved in avi already, I'd think that would be fine for most software.

 

[woot7800GT]

It's okay, but the thing is, AVIs take up so much space and I've got alot of 'em. It'd be nice to be able to save some disk space.

 

[EricB]

it better to capture as a big file first to the hard drive then shrink it.

www.dvdrhelp.com is the place for converting tools

 

[horndude]

mpeg4 vid/mp3 audio in an avi is about as good as it gets in the file size versus quality dept, matroska with ogg audio seems to synch better but not likley many editors will work with it

 

[EricB]

mpeg4 vid/mp3 audio in an avi is about as good as it gets in the file size versus quality dept, matroska with ogg audio seems to synch better but not likley many editors will work with it

true. you get a high quality 300 mb hour movie with perfect sync. how do you encode to mkv?

 

[RockyZ]

AVI captured by fraps is uncompressed, therefore they are huge files. Just compress them in Divx/Xvid codec. You can do that easily by using Dr.Divx. Virtual Dub also works.

 

[duck]

if it's saved in avi already, I'd think that would be fine for most software.

The same opinion.
or divx