How can I make the video size smaller?

[greator]

My hard drive is full of Jtv shows from early 2000 till recent (only shows that I like). The problem with recent shows is that usually people upload it in 1080 which is the native resolution of the show. Sure it's good and all, but this is too much for me. I'm keeping it for my own private watch so I don't need all those details.

I want to convert them to 720p, at least making a 1hour show to under 1GB size. Can you guys help me what software is good for converting? And what set up/profile should I use?
Thanks.

[gesichtspalme]

I've been using AviDemux for that. It works fine for single files, but I don't know if it can be used for batch conversion..

It's free, so you might as well give it a shot until someone comes up with something better. Just keep in mind that video editing takes a whole bunch of processing power, so this might take a lot of time depending on how much you want to convert..

With that said.. I think you'll be better off in the long run if you just invest a few bucks into a big external storage HDD. You can get them pretty cheap by now if you don't care about speed. I could get a 4TB HDD for around 90 in Germany.