Compress large avi files

Hi,

I have a Canon Powershot S2 and I have been using the "video" mode quite a lot lately. The problem is that it creates really large files (approx 1gig per 10minutes). I think the output is in some form of "raw" data, 640x480 30frames/second. Is there a way to compress the video without loosing any quality, or loosing very little quality? The format must be in some sort of "open" format and that can be played in most mediaplayers.

I would recommend using something like Avidemux (some like to use kino) for a video editor/coverter. Both are available in the repositories and you can install them easily using the Synaptic Package Manager. With Avidemux you just open your file(s) and you can edit them, process them, cut stuff out, etc, and then save them to whatever format you wish.

Probably the most popular formats right now are xvid/divx. They create quite small files without degrading the quality significantly.

If you really want to get fancy with your video editing, you can try cinelerra, but it is much more difficult to use (and install - not in the repositories).

Thanks for the really fast answer!

So divx would be the best choice? (Have had some bad experience with xvid...) Is divx considered as a "standard" in video editing, so that there isn't a problem playing the movies in 10 years...

As a video editing tool I have used Pinnacle Studio (windows I know...) Kino didn't work for me but I will try Cinelerra soon. At the moment though I only want to compress the files to save space, later I will do something with them as well. Do you know if divx work with the different editors?

I have quite a lot of movies and would like to do a batch-job to convert all of them, is that possible?

Lots of questions I know, would be grateful for answers.

No need to answer my last post. I found http://www.avidemux.org/ and all the information I needed.

Will create dvd-mpg of all the movies.