How would I do compress it? I've recorded sevral shows with my TV tuner but a 30 min. show is 1.6 GB . I was just wondering which programs would be best for compressing it with minimal to no loss in quality. I tried converting it to .avi with ImTOO but the quality turned out to be really bad. Also, what program could I use to cut out the commercials? Thanks in advance.

Virtualdubmod.

If you want to keep it as mpeg 1/2 you will have to re-encode it and lower the bitrate.
if you want to compress to divx or xvid use vdubmod as "reboot" stated or virtualdub mpeg2.
you can author the mpeg with a program such as Tmpgenc dvd author or similiar and compress the results with dvdshrink.

Well, I tried virtualdub mpeg 2 and it turned a 3 gig file into a 75.4 gigs. it would have gotten bigger, but it agve me an error (not enough disk space).

You need to install what is called a "codec", this is a means of compressing the video to a much smaller size, I would reccomend you download and install the XviD codec (free). Then in VirtualDub go to Video> Compression. Select the XviD codec, click configure, and set the bit rate to something like 750kbps.

Ben

lol, I'm not a total noob . Thanks for telling me how to set the compression though, I was wondering why the file was so big

*sigh* now I have to edit out those commercials again >.<