I am going AVI to AVI and it's taken a LONG time to get just to 61%. Each percentage point towards completion seems to be taking a long time. Is that quite normal? Is there no tool out there that can be more brief? I don't want to do any editing, though I am intrigued by the potential of AGK for future projects. I just want to crunch the file size down, to 699 MB.
EDIT:
Keeping in mind that I just want to do AVI to AVI conversions, and perhaps use more of the AGK features in future (but only ever AVI to AVI), is it also necessary to install AviSynth and VobSub (XviDcodec I assume no, as I already have the latest)?
Re-encoding video takes a long time (I use DivX multipass [2-pass] and I need about 2x5.5 = 11 hrs).
But since you need to lower the movie size just few MBs, re-encode the audio in a format with a lower bitrate (e.g. from 128 kbps to 96 kbps) and substitute the audio with VirtualDubMod (command Stream__Stream List; disable the high bitrare's audio, add the lower one).
128 kbps is the so-called 'optimal' rate, but you can head a decent movie up to 96 kbps.
You'll lower the MP3 (or AC3) size [for a 2h movie] from 112 to 84 MB, that is the AVI will become 726 MB ==> (726-112+84) MB = 698 MB
You'll need about 20' to convert AC3 --> MP3 CBR with HeadAC3he and 3' to replace the AVI's audio with VirtualDubMod set on Video___Direct Stream Copy.