Trimming down those pesky Fraps files

[Spitfire'd]

Hey gang,

So I am using Fraps to capture some great videos. You'll really enjoy them. Some are even available now.

I was using Pinnacle to render them and reduce the file size, however while trying to render a Gunpoint video that was captured in 1600 x 900 I noticed Pinnacle would not let me keep it at that size. In fact Pinnacle would not let me go bigger than 640 x 912 and the game's resolution won't go that low.

Are there any other decent PC video editing programs that I could use? WMM is out, it messed up my PC to a point where I had to do a system restore just to get it to start. Looking for free preferably.

(I do have a Mac, I'm going to try editing the videos on iMovie to see if it can do better)

 

[_Sushi]

Install Xvid. Run the videos through VirtualDub.

1. Download Virtualdub
2. Download Xvid
3. Install Xvid
4. Open Virtualdub
5. Select File > Open video file... and select the Fraps video you want to compress
6. If you have additional fraps videos you want to smash with the first one, use File > Append AVI segment... and select it. Fraps tends to break videos into 4GB segments, unless you turn that off
7. Go to Video > Full processing mode (make sure it's selected)
8. Go to Video > Compression and select "Xvid MPEG-4 Codec"
9. Press OK at the Compression dialog.
10. Go to Audio > Full processing mode (make sure it's selected)
11. Go to Audio > Compression and select "MPEG Layer-3". Select the "320 kBits/s, 44.100 Hz, Stereo" option for the best quality or "192 kBit/s, 44.100 Hz, Stereo" option if you're going to be uploading to YouTube
12. Press OK at the Compression dialog.
13. You're all set, just go to File > Save as AVI... to save your new compressed video. You're going to have to wait a while while it compresses but the size will be decently reduced in the end. If you have a good CPU it shouldn't take that long.

 

[Spitfire'd]

Awesome. This works great. Virtualdub appears to be real easy to use to so I can cut clips out without a problem. Thanks Sushi!

Someone get this guy the tech help award!

 

[Snipeye]

I think I saw similar advice in this thread

 

[_Sushi]

Awesome. This works great. Virtualdub appears to be real easy to use to so I can cut clips out without a problem. Thanks Sushi!

Someone get this guy the tech help award!

No problem, glad I could help!

I think I saw similar advice in this thread

Unsurprising, this is one of the better ways to cut down video size! :laugh:

 

[Spitfire'd]

I think I saw similar advice in this thread

Haha, it's funny because I do that to people all the time.

I searched the first 3 pages of tech help and did a general search in our forums for the keyword Fraps before posting. I didn't search tech talk because this was a help issue, not a discussion.

Plus, as I said before Windows Movie Maker is out, it crashed my PC. Going to check out Sony Vegas Pro in case I decide down the road to add music and/or a cool intro to my videos.

Thanks for the help again!