Have you ever recorded home video on a camcorder only to find the video size is enormous? What if you wanted to share a video clip on YouTube or another video sharing site, but the file size was bigger than the maximum upload size? Today we’ll look at a way to compress certain video files, such as MPEG and AVI, with Auto Gordian Knot (AutoGK).

AutoGK is a free application that runs on Windows. It supports Mpeg1, Mpeg2, Transport Streams, Vobs, and virtually any codec used for an .AVI file. AutoGK will accept as input the following file types: MPG, MPEG, VOB, VRO, M2V, DAT, IFO, TS, TP, TRP, M2T, and AVI. Files are output as .AVI files and are converted using the DivX or XviD codecs.

Installing and Using AutoGK

Download and install AutoGK (link below) Open the AutoGK. You’ll need to navigate a few wizard screens, but you can just accept the defaults.

Choose your video file by clicking on the folder to the right of the Input file text box.

Browse for and select your video file and click “Open.”

For this example, we’ll be working with an .AVI file that’s 167MB in size.

The output file is copied into the same directory as the input file by default, but you can change this if you choose. If the input file is also .AVI, AutoGK will append an _agk to the output file so that the original is not overwritten.

Next, you’ll see any audio tracks listed. You can unselect the check box if you’d like to remove the audio track.

You can choose one of the Predefined size options…

Or, select a Custom size in MB or Target Quality in percentage. For our example, we’ll be compressing our 167MB file to 35MB.

Click on Advanced Settings.

Here you can choose your codec, if you have a preference, as well as output resolution and output audio. If you’d like to use the DivX codec, you’ll need to download and install it separately. (See link below) Typically you’ll want to keep the defaults. Click “OK.”

Now you’re ready to add your file conversion job to the Job queue. Click Add Job to add it to the queue. You can add multiple files conversions to the job queue and  convert them in one batch.

Click Start to begin the conversion process.

The process will begin. You’ll be able to see the progress in the Log window on the bottom left.

When the conversion is complete you’ll see a “Job finished” and the total time in the log window.

Check your output file to see it’s compressed size.

Test your video just to make sure the output quality is satisfactory.

Note:  Conversion times can vary greatly depending on the size of the file and your computer hardware. Files that are several GBs in size may take several hours to compress.

AutoGK is no longer being actively developed but is still a wonderful DivX/XviD conversion tool. It can also be used to compress and convert non-copy protected DVDs.

Downloads

AutoGordianKnot

DivX (optional)