At first glance it may seem that the average computer user does not need to encode the video. Office applications, games and movies work, the browser successfully opens pages on the Internet. Well, encoding video information is the prerogative of people whose profession is connected with editing movies and processing similar data streams. For some, it will be a revelation, but this opinion is erroneous. All because video coding is sometimes claimed. The reasons can be very different: from the need to reduce the file occupied by the file, before converting it into a format "understood by" the hardware DVD-player. Since the universality of the computer is achieved thanks to the corresponding applications installed on it, the program for video encoding must necessarily be present among them.
There are a lot of such solutions: from the most complicated professional packages that allow you to correct the smallest details of the codec's work, to relatively simple programs using the banal Drag & Drop. We propose to pay attention to a fairly good solution - VirtualDub (or its modification - Mod). With this application, video encoding turns into an understandable and accessible operation.
So, suppose that the user is faced with the task of reducing the amount of video file, keeping the original quality as much as possible. After starting the program, you should open the original file. To do this, use the command of the corresponding menu item in the "header". If the performance of the CPU is not enough, you will have to wait a little while the internal indexes are scanned.
You can speed up the program a little by adjusting the settings. For example, it's useful to activate Drop Frame mechanisms, synchronize audio and video streams (Sync audio), enable hardware overlay processing (Allow overlays). Also, it is worth trying to use a new function of using 3D acceleration, located on the path "Option - Preferences - 3D accel".
After opening the file and adjusting the performance, you should select the codec by which the video will be encoded. If you do not need to use the additional features of the program, then you can choose Fast (Fast) or Normal (Normal) mode. So, if the concept of "Color Depth" to the user does not say anything, then it is quite acceptable to use "Fast". Next, to continue working in the Video menu, you need to select the full processing mode. After that, the choice of compression is unblocked (combination Ctrl + P). The left window lists the available codecs installed in the operating system. Before working with the program, it is recommended to install a codec-pack, for example, the known K-Lite. Selecting the desired (one of the popular - DivX), you should select the bitrate in the configuration. The larger this number, the less quality loss, but the larger the output file size. Opinions about how much is enough divided. Perhaps, less than 800 should not be put. Here you can also use two-pass encoding. It improves video quality, but it takes more time to complete the process. When you make the changes, you need to click "OK" and in the "File" menu specify saving as AVI.