How to make video files much smaller?

[crossword]

Hi,
I wonder if anyone can help me? I have broadband but a friend of mine doesn’t. I want to send him a bunch of Youtube videos that he can’t play himself.

I saved a couple of videos on Realplayer, then converted them to Audio Only/MP3 files, thinking Audio files would be much smaller than Video.

But the Original 4MB file became 2MB, which is still too large for him to download.

Is there any way to make these original video files really small, like less than 500 KB? Or at least 1MB at the most. It doesn’t matter if the picture quality degrades considerably. The important thing is that the sound should be clear. If there is any way to make really small audio only files of them, that would be fine too.

Thanks a lot for any help anyone can give me.

[jagabo]

File size = bitrate * running time

Use a lower bitrate. WMA an AAC will give better results than MP3 at low bitrates.

[yoda313]

Here's an alternative - if its quite a bit why not burn to a cd or dvd and mail it to your friend? Than you won't have to convert at all. As long as your friend has a program that will be able to play it that is (something like mediaplayerclassic or vlc).