Need help lowering file size for FMA

[NM]

Hey guys, I really need some help here. I'm trying to fit KickAssAnime's Full Metal Alchemist onto 3 dvds but with the way I divided up my episodes, their not fitting. So I was just wondering if anyone knows how to lower the quality by just a small amount. I need to lower the quality around 20 MB. Thanks for any help in advance!

[stos289]

Well, you could re-encode a couple of episodes through Virtual Dub and lower the quality a bit in the compression, but I doubt you want to lose quality in the videos. What I would do is just chop off the outros (and intros too if you want) in a few of the episodes just to lower the file size of a few of them. I don't know about you, but I usually don't watch the outros after I've seen them a few times as it really is the same thing over and over again. I'm pretty sure you know how to do this NM (I remember you asking a question about it before), but in case you don't, all you have to do is open them up with VirtualDub, put it on Direct Stream Copy, cut the outros out, and then save as AVI. I would recommend doing this process to episodes under episode 39 as I looked at how they encoded it under KAA's forums and episodes 39+ are encoded in H264 which VirtualDub has some trouble handling.

If you don't want to do it this way, I can show you how to lower the quality in Virtual Dub, but I would recommend just getting rid of outros. Hope I could help.

[NM]

Could you explain how to lower the quality (I've still got Vdub on my laptop so I don't need a link to that)? I know the outros and intros are the same thing over and over but I kinda want to keep them in the video file as their part of the show. Sorry for the trouble again Stos, but I really appreciate all the help you've been giving me! Normally, I try to avoid losing quality at all costs but I only need to lose a small amount to fit on the dvd. And since thats the case, I don't think it would be really noticable. But then again, I'm not really sure since I've never done this kind of encoding before (only time I messed with Vdub was when I asked you how to get rid of an intro that Anime-Xplosion added before the real intro to Hellsing).

Oh, and I don't need to worry about the episodes encoded in H.264, because with the way I have my episodes divided, when episodes 39+ come into the picture, they fit just fine on a dvd. Its just all the .avi's below episode 39 that I want to reduce a little bit of quality on.

[stos289]

It's no problem, I'll explain it to you.

First what you need to do is open up the file with VirtualDub. Then go to "Video" and check "Normal recompress." Then, while your still under "Video," go to "Compression." Then a list will show up with a bunch of codecs that you have installed on your computer. You can choose from a bunch of these (each one if different as they either have some sort of quality bar or advance settings that you need to change to alter the quality) but I'll choose Xvid since most people who watch anime have that (I assume). After you choose that one, go to "Configure" and another window will show up with a bunch of options. The "Profile @ Level" should be "unrestriced" and you need to change the "Encoding Type" to "Two Pass - 2nd Pass." Under that there should be a button that either says "Target Size" or "Target Bitrate." Click the button so it says "Target Size" and then change the value to whatever you need it to be (1 MB = 1024 KB). I would set it a little lower in this case as that is only an estimated value (if it is significantly lower than you need, you can reencode it with a higher value). After you do that, hit "calc" next to the box you put the value in and bunch of other settings will appear. All you have to do is change "frames per second" to "29.97 (NTSC)" as that is the region for Japan and the US. After all that you can click OK and then go to "File" and then "Save as AVI" and your done.

If something goes wrong or you need help, don't hesitate to post.