Help compressing (zipping) movie files

[teddyFBI]

I've got a few (non-porn, really) movie files I'm trying to zip up and send to a friend...but when I dump the 94MB .avi file into my WinRAR program that usually compresses a file to 10% or less, it says "file compressed successfully", but the 'zipped' file is still around 94MB!! Is there something about movie files that makes them 'uncompressable'??

[Cry Me A River]

Unless your movies are in a raw format (which they aren't if they're AVI) they are already compressed. Compressing them again (albeit with a different compression scheme) is only going to have a very limited benefit. Don't even bother.

You'll see the same effect if you try and compress GIFs and JPGs or MP3s.

[Dantes]

I dont really know that much about this but when I use Fraps to make game movies it saves it in a totally uncompressed format and I need to use windows movie maker to "make" the file into something weildly.

[Luzion]

Its pointless to compress already compressed files. Im guessing your avi file is divx/xvid. Only way to get it even smaller is my converting it to a smaller resolution, or chopping down the bitrate.

Goto www.vcdhelp.com (http://www.vcdhelp.com) for info

[ethan]

[ QUOTE ]
Unless your movies are in a raw format (which they aren't if they're AVI) they are already compressed.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just to be a nit, the bold part isn't true. You can have raw .avi files, and zipping them will reduce filesize significantly. However, they're not something you'll encounter. I've dealt with them some, but only because I work in computer graphics.