[FFmpeg-user] Any way to make this 2GB file any smaller?

[Gilles]

On Fri, 15 Nov 2013 10:39:37 +0000, Tom Evans
<tevans.uk at googlemail.com> wrote:
>All of them "make the file smaller", but probably not how you want.
>Carl wanted you to explain what it is you want as a result of the
>conversion.

The original file was 10G. It is now down to 2GB after converting it
from MPEG to MP4 as container, and using H264 instead of MPEG2 as the
video codec.

I was wondering if it could be made yet smaller. It's just a home
video and will be played on a computer, so quality isn't a big issue.

So it appears that the following options are available:
- transcode audio from AC3 to AAC
- lower audio bitrate from 48KHz to 44KHz, 5.1 to stereo, and 448kb/s
to 192kb/s
- reduce screen size from 720x576 to eg. 640x512