Tutorial written by : LinksAwakening
Last edited: December 29, 2003

Tools Needed:
-XMVTool (Only availiable in Xbox SDK, check "Usual Places")
-RAD Video Tools (Check RAD Video Tools)

 

Info:
Downsampling movies (i.e... Re-encoding them to lower the file size)
is very useful when trying to save space on backups of larger games, so
that they can be fit onto DVD/CD Media, or even to save HDD space...

Will you lose video quality by downsampling? Yes.
Will you be able to see the difference in the quality loss? More
than likely not.

Althought you are lowering the video quality of the movie, you will
not see any major differences in playback (without taking screenshots
and zooming in on them, of course)...

 

Downsampling *.BIK Movie Files:
Downsampling BIK Movie Files requires RAD Video Tools. Once RAD is
installed, run it to bring up the following screen:

Highlight one or more files, then click the "Bink It!" button to move
on...

On this screen, follow these steps:

click image for larger view

1. Browse to a folder/file to store the downsampled movie(s) into...

2. Click on the radio button to select "Compress to a % of the
original:", and type in whatever percentage you will need to compress
it to for the backup to fit onto DVD/CD Media. I used 40% in this
example, and the quality loss was barely noticeable...

3. Click the Bink button to begin the compression (or Batch button if
doing multiple movies files at once)...

When finished, you should have your Downsampled movie file(s) ready to
be placed onto your backup...

 

Downsampling *.XMV Movie Files:

Downsampling XMV Movie Files requires XMV Tool (this is availiable
on the Microsoft Xbox SDK, and in the "Usual Places")...

XMV Tool is a Command-Line Program (which means you must run it from a
Command Prompt). Simply start up a Command-Prompt, and move to the
directory in which you have XMV Tool (the EXE file) stored in. Place
your XMV Movie File in this folder aswell...

Once there, type the following command:

xmvtool.exe -ic Before.xmv -o After.xmv

(Replace Before.xmv with the filename of the Input XMV Movie File, and
replace After.xmv with whatever you want the downsampled file to be
named)...

When finished, you will have a downsampled XMV Movie File ready to be
placed onto your backup...

 

Simple Batch File To Downsample XMV Movie Files:

As stated before, XMV Tool is a command-line program, which makes it
easy to create a Batch File to easily downsample movies in the future.

If you aren't sure how to make one yourself, feel free to copy the one
below (simply copy all the "code" into a Text File, and rename the
extension to *.BAT):

-------------------------------------------

@echo off
echo.
echo Creating Compressed XMV Movie File.....
echo.
echo Please Wait...
xmvtool.exe -ic Before.xmv -o After.xmv
echo.
echo.
echo.
echo Completed! After.xmv has been created...
echo.
pause
exit

-------------------------------------------

Just place that Batch File in the folder with XMV Tool, and run the
Batch File to change "Before.xmv" to "After.xmv"...

Tutorial written by : LinksAwakening