Want to make small AVI files for web posting...

[chessasaur2]

First, let me apologize if this is way off topic, but I thought someone here might point me in the right direction.

I want to make small AVI files (say, 1Mbyte per 10 seconds or better) from some camcorder video tapes I have. My plan is to post on my website and to be honest I'm not too sure where to start. I can capture and edit the video ok, but all the files I make are very large (about three times what I'm aiming for).

If anyone can point me in the right direction for info on this (or has done it themselves), I'd sure appreciate it.

Thanks in advance....
Mike

[rolonzos]

Try capturing the video using VirtualDub.
Try using the Huffy codec to capture the video as AVI.
Capture the audio as a WAV (PCM) format.
(http://www.griffin-digital.com/utils.htm)

Now that you've got the AVI file as Huffy with WAV sound,
use VirtualDub to open the file you made and use the DivX
codec for the video and Radium codec for the audio.

You can get the DivX codec from (divx.com), but the Radium
codec you may want to grab from the audio section of:
(http://www.doom9.org/software2.htm#audio)

For instructions to setup the Radium MP3 codec, use this page:
(http://www.users.qwest.net/~rolonzos/mp3/)

You can use this calculator to find the exact bitrate you'd
want to use for the desired file size, as well as the MP3 bitrate:
(http://www.divx-digest.com/software/advanced_divx_calc.html)

If you want some extra info on DivX 5 in Virtual dub, you can try:
(http://www.doom9.org/divx5-vdub.htm)

The reason for catpuring with Huffy and then converting to DivX is
the frame rate. DivX requries a lot of processor to encode, which
would cause a lot of frames to drop and get choppy.
Huffy doesn't requrie as much processing power, so it captrues well,
but the file size is kind of large. Don't try uncompressed AVI to capture.
Uncompressed AVI is so huge, you'd fill up a hard drive in a few minutes
of capturing.

Good luck.

[holistic]

Mike

For small files like 1 Mb then mpeg4 / divX is your best choice

A divX bitrate of 780 with 128k audio will equal about 1Mb per 10 seconds.
The video will look quiet pixelated ,but there is not many options for your requirements - 1 Mb per 10 seconds !

][

[TeeeRex]

Mike,

If you want a quick and easy solution ...

If you are using Win XP then just capture using MS Movie Maker and then select the setting you want for the web export.

Problem with using DivX is that the clients will need th correct Codec on their PC to be able to view the MPG. AVI is more portable - not as good as MPG granted but will play on 100% of Browsers with no downloads or poncing about...

My two pennith ...

TeeeRex

[MikeS]

Here is what I do

Capture at 640x480 29.97 fps huffy codec with virtual dub. I can get about 1 hour 15 minutes on my 50 gig partition. If you're using Windows XP make sure you turn off all the useless sh!t like disk monitoring etc so you don't drop frames. Then resize the captured file to 320x240 with precise bilinear using whatever bitrate you want until it's small enough. About 650-700 bitrate will get you 6 megs a minute. It'll look "ok." I find that resizing with precise bilinear eliminates all the block noise. If these are you precious family videos though I would use a higher bitrate.