File format question

[tonyjer]

Hi Everyone

I have searched this board but am still confused about the best file fomat for e-mailing video clips.

My clip is only about 2 minutes long (my son!) and I have tried to export it to wmv (I think that the recommended format). The problem is that the file is still about 5MB in size and takes an eternity to e-mail.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Many thanks

Antonio, Anna y Eduardo Felipe

[GeorgeW]

2 minutes to about 5mb is actually pretty good (imho).

You could try lowering the bitrate, and if there's audio, you can lower that as well (if audio isn't as important as the video).

DivX can get good quality at low bitrates -- but it will require that your recipients have a divx player installed.

What settings are you using when encoding to wmv?

I like to use the standalone Windows Media Encoder 9 (download from Microsoft's site).

[AnimeChick]

You also might have to, unfourtunately, reduce your resolution. It's really impractical to e-mail full resolution (720x480) video. You'll want to reduce is to a smaller size, like 320x240 or less, and maybe consider using 15 frames per second instead of 30.

[GeorgeW]

just keep in mind that resolution won't change the overall file size (lowering the bitrate will).

But I agree, as you use lower bitrates, lowering the resolution will make the video appear better...

[Bill345]

I was just recently playing with wmv files for internet downloading. I was able to take a 1 minute clip down to about 1mb by using the SHARE VIDEO ONLINE selection and choosing the LOW QUALITY.

The results were viewable, but very low quality as you would expect. You might try experimenting with the LOW and MEDIUM settings and see how you like the results. This may be easier then playing with custom settings, but you'll have less control.

[tonyjer]

Many thanks again

I will persevere!

Antonio, Anna y Eduardo Felipe