At first glance, it might seem that the average computer user does not need to encode video at all. Office applications, games and movies work, the browser successfully opens pages on the Internet.
Well, encoding video information is the prerogative of people whose profession is associated with the editing of films and the processing of such data streams. For some it will be a revelation, but such an opinion is erroneous. That's because video encoding is sometimes in demand. The reasons can be very different: from the need to reduce the volume occupied by the file, to conversion to the format “understood” by the hardware DVD player. Since the versatility of a computer is achieved thanks to the corresponding applications installed on it, a program for encoding video must be present among them.
There are a huge number of such solutions: from the most complex professional packages that allow you to adjust the smallest details of the codecs, to relatively simple programs that use the banal Drag & Drop. We suggest paying attention to a fairly good solution - VirtualDub (or its modification - Mod). With this application, video encoding becomes an understandable and affordable operation.
So, suppose that the user is faced with the task of reducing the volume of the video file, while preserving the original quality if possible. After starting the program, open the original file. To do this, use the command of the corresponding menu item in the "header". If the CPU performance is insufficient, you will have to wait a bit until the internal indexes are scanned.
You can slightly speed up the program by making adjustments to the settings. For example, it is useful to activate the mechanisms of frame skipping (Drop Frame), synchronization of audio and video streams (Sync audio), enable hardware processing of overlays (Allow overlays). It is also worth trying to use the new function of using three-dimensional acceleration, located along the path "Option - Preferences - 3D accel".
After opening the file and tuning the performance, you should select the codec with which the video will be encoded. If you do not require the use of additional features of the program, then it is permissible to choose fast (Fast) or normal (Normal) mode. So, if the concept of “Color Depth” does not tell the user anything, then it is perfectly acceptable to use “Fast”. Next, to continue working in the Video menu, you need to select the full processing mode - Full processing. After that, the compression selection is unlocked (combination Ctrl + P). The left window contains a list of available codecs installed in the operating system. Before starting work with the program, it is recommended to install a codec pack, for example, the famous K-Lite. Having chosen the desired one (one of the most popular - DivX), you should select the bitrate in the configuration. The larger this number, the lower the quality loss, but the larger the output file. Opinions about how much are divided. Perhaps less than 800 should not be set. Here you can use two-pass encoding. It improves the
quality of the video, but takes longer to complete the process. After making changes, you need to click “OK” and in the “File” menu, specify the save as AVI.