If you're just looking for conversion, you might want to try arista
or transmageddon
instead of Openshot. Arista Transcoder and Transmageddon are applications focused on just doing the conversion and nothing else. Especially Arista Transcoder contains a lot of presets, of which one is xvid. Install them using the command sudo apt-get install arista transmageddon
.
My answer to this question: How can I maximum compress video files? may be helpful for your case. In this answer I talk about Miksoft's Mobile Media Converter, but there are a few alternatives to this task which can easily be reached over the net.
Anyway, Mobile Media Converter will only work for 32 bit version OS's. And for both 32/64 bit version I suggest you to give a chance to
And there are some other useful Transcoding Software, which includes Non Linear Editing Systems like those mentioned on the answers to this question: What is an easy video editor? and command line using ffmpeg. (as mentioned by @tomodachi)
Nevertheless, the trick in compression (in order to make the videos lighter when loaded to/from the server) isn't in the software itself but the way you make your videos.
You must pay special attention to the Audio and Video Bitrates, which determines both the quality and file size for the resulting transcoded videos and remember that the higher bitrate will result in a higher quality but it will also drop "heavy" file sizes.
You should run as many tests as you need in order to feel comfortable with both the resulting quality and file size.
There is no a pre-defined set of parameters which will do always the same for your videos when you are trying to save something, let's say: quality and file size, or in the worst case: both them.
There is no such "magic codec" that will result in a better quality with small file sizes. Take in consideration that you could have a mpeg1 video file (VCD) with a high bitrate looking better than an mp4 video file with a lower bitrate.
Additionally and only for your consideration:
The FileInfo.com webpage related to "Video Formats" provides an extensive and really comprehensive list of video formats, its available software which can be used to play each one and the "popularity".
You may also wish to take a look to the "Digital Container format" and the table of "Comparison of container formats".
Good luck!
- Parts of this answer were took from Reduce avi size without losing too much quality
Best Answer
Terminal commands (Which by default are not installed) are:
MENCODER
Install it by
sudo apt-get install mencoder
mencoder
The part about mencoder that you want is the parameter -vop scale which tells mencoder to what scale you want the video to go to. This is normal if you want to reduce bandwidth use, lower video size, etc..
mencoder input.mp4 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mp4 -vop scale=640:480 -oac copy -o output.mp4
or
mencoder input.mp4 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mp4 -vf scale=640:480 -oac copy -o output.mp4
or a simple
mencoder input.mp4 -vop scale=640:480 -o output.mp4
Although from my experience is better to include additional information for video and audio like the one above.
FFMPEG (Deprecated)
Install it by
sudo apt-get install ffmpeg
ffmpeg
Here is an example of ffmpeg:
ffmpeg -i input -vf scale=iw/2:-1 output
Where IW = Video Input Width.
Scale = Parameter to scale to. In this case you are dividing the original size by 2 (iw/2)
both of which can provide more information if you either execute them without parameters or variables like just
mencoder
orffmpeg
or type for exampleman mencoder
orman ffmpeg
which will give you a VERY extensive little manual on how to work with them.AVCONV <-- I love this guy!
avconv
To Install -
sudo apt-get install libav-tools
To Run -
avconv -i input.mp4 -s 640x480 output.mp4
Where
-i
is for the original input file,-s
is for the size for each frame and the name of the output final goes in the end.GUI tools which I love are:
AVIDEMUX - It can resize and lower the size which helps in cases where the objective is to lower size. avidemux
HANDBRAKE - Excellent tool for converting videos and optimizing size. I use it a lot when going from ogg to mp4 with h.264. Lowers A LOT the size. handbrake
OPENSHOT & PITIVI - Both are good video editors tha can help lower size when rendering the video. openshot and pitivi
So in conclusion, for direct resizing/scaling you can use the terminal ones. For size you can use all.