Best way to shrink a video for the internet?

[Captain Satellite]

I got lost in the guides and did a search - sorry. I have about a 150 mb mpeg video file that I want to shrink to 15 mbs. I did it before with TMPGENC but it came out real blocky. Any advice or guides that would help would be very much appreciated - thanks!

[ozymango]

I have about a 150 mb video file that I want to shrink to 15 mbs.

That's a heck of a lot of shrinkage so I'm not surprised it's blocky. I note your subject line mentions "Internet" playback -- depending on the resolution and frame rate you desire, you might try the free versions of Windows Media Encoder or Real Producer 10 (basic). You can experiment with connection speed to get a balance between quality and size, and you don't have to stream these if you don't want, just make .wmv or .rm files your end-user can then download.

[CoffeeEater]

That is a monster shrinkage. What were you expecting?

[Captain Satellite]

I have about a 150 mb video file that I want to shrink to 15 mbs.

That's a heck of a lot of shrinkage so I'm not surprised it's blocky. I note your subject line mentions "Internet" playback -- depending on the resolution and frame rate you desire, you might try the free versions of Windows Media Encoder or Real Producer 10 (basic). You can experiment with connection speed to get a balance between quality and size, and you don't have to stream these if you don't want, just make .wmv or .rm files your end-user can then download.

Thanks so much for your suggestions, I'll give them a whirl.

[jimmalenko]

Windows Media Encoder or Windows Movie Maker and create a WMV would be my recommendation, but you still might be pushing it to get it to 15MB from 150MB and stll decent to look at.

[Captain Satellite]

I'll try and explain further: I want to record a music video on my DVD recorder (I could record at EP, I suppose that would help), then convert that clip to mpeg so that I can send it via email. The file size limit is 16 mb. Thanks for the replies, I have to hit it and check back tonight.

[edDV]

I agree wmv destination is best for the average downloader out there since fewer have the real player installed.

Your original file should be the best quality you can produce on your system.
You will get the best output from Windows Media Encoder if you input in high quality.

[gonzalimator]

Hey,

Like these other folks have already suggested, shrink your resolution and then use something like the WMV or AVI file format. You won't get good picture quality with MPEG with such low bitrates. Try reducing the resolution to 320x240 and use your favourite compression. I might try AVI with DivX or XviD with a low bitrate to meet the target file size of 16Mb. You'll get great picture quality with the MPEG-4 based compression.

Otherwise, WMV also does a great job at low bitrates. (I once compressed a two minute cartoon down to 1.9Mb at 320x180 so that it could be streamed easily. It's not great picture quality at that size, but it's watchable.)

[edDV]

Hey,

Like these other folks have already suggested, shrink your resolution and then use something like the WMV or AVI file format. You won't get good picture quality with MPEG with such low bitrates. Try reducing the resolution to 320x240 and use your favourite compression. I might try AVI with DivX or XviD with a low bitrate to meet the target file size of 16Mb. You'll get great picture quality with the MPEG-4 based compression.

Otherwise, WMV also does a great job at low bitrates. (I once compressed a two minute cartoon down to 1.9Mb at 320x180 so that it could be streamed easily. It's not great picture quality at that size, but it's watchable.)

Wmv is also MPeg4 based so that is a wash.

The issue as I see it is the profile of the intended receiver. If you are in communication with each of them and they can handle installation of a DivX or XviD capable player, then all three standards are viable.

The average undefined user will be able to play a wmv.

[gonzalimator]

Wmv is also MPeg4 based so that is a wash.

You learn something new everyday.

[Ward River]

If the file size limitation on email attchments barrier is the only concern and you don't care about lengthy downloads, making it a multi-part WinRar archive set is always an option...

[limpy]

If the file size limitation on email attchments barrier is the only concern and you don't care about lengthy downloads, making it a multi-part WinRar archive set is always an option...

I was going to say the same thing. I've used Winrar in the past for the same thing. Maybe shrink the file in half or like 45MB. You can make it self extracting if the person on the other end doesn't have Winrar or doesn't want to install it.

[Captain Satellite]

I wanted to thank everybody for their replies. I will get a chance later this week to give it a whirl.

[NickSaunders]

What I usually do to bypass the email file size restriction by most ISPs is to use the free service www.yousendit.com You can send any file up to 1 GB. The recipient gets an email with a link that allows them to download the file directly from the yousendit server. The file isn't routed through the sender or the recipient's ISP email servers. So...now that file size restrictions are removed from the equation you could even send the original 150MB file if you would like.

[Captain Satellite]

What I usually do to bypass the email file size restriction by most ISPs is to use the free service www.yousendit.com You can send any file up to 1 GB. The recipient gets an email with a link that allows them to download the file directly from the yousendit server. The file isn't routed through the sender or the recipient's ISP email servers. So...now that file size restrictions are removed from the equation you could even send the original 150MB file if you would like.

So funny you should mention that. I tried that forabout three hours and couldn't get it to work. I would send it to one of my email adresses on high speed - I finally gave up.

[Bob W]

Here is a program that will do exactly what you want and with good quality at 320x240 resolution. I have used the program to convert a 4GB DVD to 200MB and the resulting wmv file looks very good on my PDA (also the conversion is very fast). You can download the demo for this program and check it out yourself.
http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=14059

[Captain Satellite]

Thanks, Bob, I'll give it a try.

[lpn1160]

How about spliting it with winrar and sending in two or three segments ??