Video Compressors

I’ve been downloading for a few years now and i’ve noticed the different sized TV show files and movie files etc, i understand that the smaller sized files have been compressed.
I was wondering if anybody could explain and tell me which compressor is the best and how to use it effectively, because i have a bunch of old movies and tv shows that i would love to compress to free up more space on my harddrive.
Any help would be great, cheers.
Answer #1
MKV. Use MeGUI.
Answer #2
I don’t think you can compress a video (or enough to save much space). However, you can use a video converter to convert the video to a lower bitrate (it lowers video quality).
Answer #3
Louis_x9 replied: I've been downloading for a few years now and i've noticed the different sized TV show files and movie files etc, i understand that the smaller sized files have been compressed.
I was wondering if anybody could explain and tell me which compressor is the best and how to use it effectively, because i have a bunch of old movies and tv shows that i would love to compress to free up more space on my harddrive.
Any help would be great, cheers.
You can lower the bitrate, the resolution, turn it into anamorphic video which lowers the horizontal resolution and filter video to improve compression.
However, it’s not really worth spending the time to do it because it will take up massive amounts of time. You would be better off downloading the files again in smaller sizes because it would be much faster and easier to do.
solyendo replied: I don't think you can compress a video (or enough to save much space). However, you can use a video converter to convert the video to a lower bitrate (it lowers video quality).
Of course you can, your second sentence even states it as so and contradicts the first.
Changing the codec will also do it, from Mpeg4 ASP such as XVid to Mpeg4 AVC x264 will lower the file size without affecting the quality to any extent.
Answer #4
I use avidemux for this and more.
If you bother to learn about video codec, configure them, also matrix then you can do amazing work.
Avidemux has large range of video/audio codecs, plus lots of filters. You can configure your setup and video/audio codecs that will work the way you want them to run. Also save custom setups for future use.
Avidemux might have a simple looking interface but do not be fooled, look and you will find this can be a complex little app.
Answer #5
Sorenson Squeeze is all you need.