# How can I compress avis?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-compress-avis/241825>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 24, 2004, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-compress-avis/241825 "2004-04-24T18:42:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2004, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-compress-avis/241825/21 "2004-04-26T05:56:52Z")

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> [@JohnClay](#):
>
> What do you mean by “low resolution”? DVD’s that are converted to DivX aren’t low resolution… e.g. for me, one was 640x256 and the other was 640x352 with high image quality. With two passes and variable bitrate it makes the final video as compressed as optimally as possible (so it is highly compressed, but with the best possible image quality). DivX has heaps of settings, you might have used settings that didn’t cause it to take long to encode.

Yes, as I’ve mentioned already, I wasn’t implying anything about DVD resolution. Because I don’t work in DVD resolution, and the OP never mentioned DVD resolution. Nor did it mention high image quality, 2-pass VBR, or any of the other things everybody else seems to have inferred (probably correctly).

As I also already concurred: Apples and Oranges.

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**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2004, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-compress-avis/241825/22 "2004-04-26T11:07:13Z")

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> [@GuanoLad](#):
>
> I recompress AVIs as part of my job. Usually it takes a **few** minutes to compress a regular **multi-gigabyte** file down to a **few** megabytes.
> 
> But it depends on which software you use, what compressor you use, and a few other factors.
> 
> It has never taken more than a couple of hours for a particularly complex file. **But 6 - 24 hours is absurd** , and you may be thinking of how it used to be back in 1996 or something.

Fine, you can compress raw DV files down low resolution, 3 - 5 minute snippets of DivX in about an hour. But this is clearly not what the OP was asking for. The others gave their experiences with re-compressing movie length DivXs into lower quality DivXs with a time frame of a couple of hours minimum. You really have no right calling that absurd.

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**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2004, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-compress-avis/241825/23 "2004-04-26T11:42:59Z")

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Thanks for ignoring the rest of the thread where I qualified my post.

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