Can I use DivX to compress avi files?

[sneexe]

Hi DivX world!

I have been trying to read the forums and articles to understand DivX as a total newbie and am confused.

As an experiment, I recently recorded about 20gig worth of 2 hours realtime TV input onto my HD- the resulting 6 files are in *.avi format.

Edited them together in the VideoCapture Card's bundled software, and tried to compress into VCD format but the resolution was absolute crap! AND it didn't fit on a single CD.

I've been reading that DivX will give DVD quality in a file small enough to fit on a CD. How do I use DivX to compress my 6 avi's? Do I need to buy special software? Is there freeware / shareware?

Am currently on WinXP.... if that matters.

....the sneexe!

[UncasMS]

there are numerous possibilities

take a look at *beginners start here*

[Qyd]

If you want VCD format you should probably use TMPGenc; however, VCD format is not DivX, and you can fit only about 60min of video on one CD.
If you want DivX format (playable only on your computer, not on a standalone DVDplayer), use VirtualDub: load avi, select full processing mode (or fast recompress) for video and audio; set video compression to DivX (choose a bitrate too - use a bitrate calculator for that), set audio compression to MpegLayer3; save as avi.
With the right bitrates you can fit two hours of video with good quality on a CD.