An excellent aid: VirtualDub

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The freeware program VirtualDub, homepage http://www.virtualdub.org, can be downloaded from http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net. With this tool it is possible to reduce the size of huge files, making them easier to work with or transfer via the Internet. For example, if you have half an hour's PicVideo Lossless recording (a clip of maybe 5 gigabytes), in about ten minutes' time it is possible to boil it down to 1 gigabyte, converting it with PicVideo MJPEG V2 at 95% - or you may compress it even more with the Divx codec to a size of about 100 megabytes, ready for cd/dvd burner or Internet transfer. Divx, however, is a bad format for finding scene changes, but after a transfer you can easily transform the file back to PicVideo MJPEG V2 with VirtualDub. The picture quality deteriation is acceptable and if you leave out audio compression, the sound quality remains unchanged through all phases.

 

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VirtualDub's main viewport

 

warning If you load an MPEG video clip and get the message "MPEG Import Filter: unexpected end of file", you should use the modified VD clone VirtualDub Mod instead.