What do I use to resize MPEG files?

Gigi · 10-07-05, 12:06 PM

I've got several very large (e.g., 70-100MB) MPEG clips that I need to resize so I can include them in a Powerpoint presentation. Any recommendations on software? Freeware preferred, of course. :) Thanks.

kentedman · 10-07-05, 12:34 PM

If you want to keep them MPG files and just re-encode to a different bitrate, try "tpmpeg" freeware and works great with mpg files. if you don't really care what format you end up with, you also might try windows media encoder. also freeware, will convert your mpg to wmv but is very painless to use, as well as windows movie maker (part of winxp sp2) will also end up with wmv files, but you can edit, cut, crop, add titles etc..
of coarse all of these are desktop applications. I am not aware of anyting to re-encode movies on the pocketpc.

Gigi · 10-07-05, 12:49 PM

Thanks for the suggestions. I just tried WME and Movie Maker but found out I didn't have the necessary codec. (BTW, it plays fine in WMP.) I believe the format is MPEG-2 so I went to Codec Corner to install the MPEG-2 codec but it still won't work in either application. Is there a way to figure out exactly which codec is required?

I will also give tpmpeg a try but would prefer to convert it to a format that will play in most PCs. Thanks.

bodyshot6 · 10-07-05, 01:43 PM

Found a couple of utilities here that might help you track that codec down.

Good luck,
Marshall

OddbOd · 10-07-05, 10:46 PM

If your videos are definitely MPEG-2 (which you can check with GSpot, a must-have tool for video freaks) then the problem is the DirectShow filter that you installed. Microsoft's encoding tools are very particular about the filters that they will use, a filter's ability to play an MPEG2 video in Media Player is in no way related to its ability to feed video into Media Encoder or Movie Maker. The ancient filter you found on Codec Corner is a deadend and should be uninstalled, it will not work.

MCored's Recommended DirectShow Configurations has a list of filters that do work with Media Encoder (and Movie Maker BTW) along with the tools needed to check your own configuration. On the same page is a DirectShow Fix Guide which contains some additional information on solving this problem.

You can obtain working decoders from Elecard or Intervideo, in the case of Intervideo you need to download the trial version of WinDVD which will install the decoder for you.