Statement

Uncompressed video files ( .avi) which are recorded from cameras or webcam use a huge file size. A 25 sec moderate quality video takes 150 mb of space. It is not possible to share this raw format with others through internet and so I was looking for a method to compress the file and keeping it as a .avi file. After searching the net and testing with a few softwares I was finally able to compress my 150mb .avi file to 5 mb without losing the framerate or quality of the video.

VirtualDub was the answer to my problem. You can download VirtualDub from here. Its a zip file which you can extract and start using by just running the file VirtualDub.exe

You will also need a Xvid Codec for the compression, a good codec is Koepi’s XviD Codec 1.2.2 which you can download and install. I got an error to override the deafult codec while installing it, but I Ignored the error and everything worked fine after that.

How to use the VirtualDub
Open the VirtualDub by double clicking the file VirtualDub.exe after you have extracted the zip file. Now open your .avi video file using the Open Video file… under the File menu. You can also use the CTRL + O to open your file. Now from the menu Video click on the Compression or CTRL + P . Scroll down to XVID Mpeg 4 Codec. Note the FOURCC code in the right side box.

You can now save the new compressed file from the File -> Save as AVI. For me the compression took about 5-6 seconds so it is also fast.

You can find more description of all the options available in VirtualDub from this website.