Converter for MC recorded data

[Teddy Roosevelt]

I've been recording a lot of TV lately through Windows Media Center. As it turn out, the format that it stores it under takes up way too space. I shouldn't have to choose between Mad Men and my hardrive. Anyways, I need some software that can convert these files into a smaller format, preferably one that still maintains some level of functionality with Windows Media Center.

 

[Joe Average]

You mean the .dvr format which is basically a slightly altered version of MPEG-2 compression which is what makes up every movie DVD you may own, taking up about 2GB of drive space per hour of content? Seems perfectly normal to me, that's what MCE has been doing since it came out, go figure.

There are tons of converters out there, Encode360 is free and will keep the files in a format (wmv) that's useful with MCE I believe. The programmer created it to use with his Xbox 360 (hence the name) but it'll still function adequately for your purposes.

Just be prepared for a long wait unless you have a quad powered monster, re-encoding already compressed material is going to take a significant amount of time. Or you could just burn the stuff you have to DVD now, yanno, it's fairly easy to do.

 

[Teddy Roosevelt]

Encode360 isn't working. Say its requires a codec to open this file but I can't find any codec that fits the bill.
Got another idea/know where to find the codec