shrink or cut avi file

i have an anime series in the form of 26 .avi files. i was planning on backing all of these files onto a dvd-r but it goes over the dvd memory limit by like 50 MB.

i was wondering if theres any way to simply shrink the file to maybe a lesser quality or maybe cutting off a part of the file to make it smaller.

thanks.

 

Never watched anime but if it has any credits or something not needed you can cut it out using this guide.
http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/cut_avi_with_virtualdub.cfm
As for compressing it upen up in AutoGK and select size you want and convert, but you will lose quality even if you only take off a few mb's