Can any software convert & compress mp4 to avi (simultaneously) ?

xmedia recode

http://www.xmedia-recode.de/download/XMediaRecode3... This is a German site, I believe, but the software is in English. It is very simple to use and has many built in profiles any of which can convert nearly any video file to almost any other video format. It takes a while to convert but I have used it many times to convert multiple videos. Just leave it run overnight and by morning you will have the converted files in a smaller (avi) file size. I was a bit nervous when I first downloaded it because the website is nearly all in German so I didn't really know what to expect but I have been using xmedia recode for the last several version releases and never had any issues.

While some versions of avi are more compact that doesn't do you

much good if all your devices cannot play that type of AVI file.

Personally I believe that mp4 is more of a "universal standard"

So even if I am given an AVI file I convert it to mp4

mp4 files are played natively by Windows 7, both media center and media player.

MP4 is usually the most efficient format out there. You don't give any details about your files, but MP4 can usually fit an hour into 1GB with very little loss of quality. If you're willing to sacrifice a little quality, MP4 can be half that size (2hrs per GB) if you use Handbrake setting of about RF=25.

Since any recoding will reduce the quality, what I really recommend is an external hard drive. 3TB is going for about $120.

There are some free video converters can help you convert MP4 to AVI.

Freemake video converter, Handbrake and Format Factory.

Take Free AVI Converter on this page:

http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/free-dvd-video-softwar...

Set output format to mp4 + set the output quality.

If you choose econmy quality the file will be compressed ;-)

Why bother? An external hard drive or recordable discs are a much better option.

AVI is a container format that uses codecs for actual compression. MPEG-4 is a codec.