compress dv for download

[humbleboy]

I have a task to post clips from a workplace and upload to our company website however I am having trouble making it smallest without losing quality, clips will be about 3 minutes each so I am trying not to make it more than 20 mb which is still suitable for download and minimum resolution I need is something like 480 x 480 if possible.
My original videos are dv avi I tried to convert to wmv bitrates less than 700kbps but there is terrible loss of quality, if I increase resolution and bitrate lets say 1500kbps 720x480 the file becomes large. I wonder how to do the conversion maintaining quality and resolution as possible and what better format i should use instead of wmv.
thanks for any help

[celtic_druid]

Well for download you have to weigh up best compression vs. max compatibility. No point having these crazy small files if most people can't play it back.

[humbleboy]

very informative thank you

[humbleboy]

how about some numbers , formats, resolution, bitrate... whatever !!! what do you think ?

[jimmalenko]

Windows Movie Maker, and the "High quality video (large)" template

[humbleboy]

how about divx ? does it give more compression? and how to do it easy way ?
thanks

[jimmalenko]

I prefer WMV to DivX/XviD - seems to retain the quality a lot better IMO while allowing you to use lower bitrates, which equals lower filesize. THere's plenty of info both here and at Doom9 regarding codec comparisons - do a bit of searching in the guides section under articles and I think you'll find a few comparisons. As for how to do it, info in the guides section

[celtic_druid]

You might also want to check out x264 or Nero Digital AVC. If yous stick with lc aac audio and don't use HP features then it will playback via QT7 which should help in terms of compatibility.

[edDV]

I have a task to post clips from a workplace and upload to our company website however I am having trouble making it smallest without losing quality, clips will be about 3 minutes each so I am trying not to make it more than 20 mb which is still suitable for download and minimum resolution I need is something like 480 x 480 if possible.
My original videos are dv avi I tried to convert to wmv bitrates less than 700kbps but there is terrible loss of quality, if I increase resolution and bitrate lets say 1500kbps 720x480 the file becomes large. I wonder how to do the conversion maintaining quality and resolution as possible and what better format i should use instead of wmv.
thanks for any help

Are you sure you need 480x480? Would 352x480 or 320x 480 be enough?
By 20mb, do you mean 20MByte? 20 mb (megabit) = 2.5MB

Are you expecting these to play back on a LAN?
Or will these be downloaded and played locally on a PC?

Wmv is your best choice if you want any PC to play it. If you use DivX et al, you will need to educate each user how to download the codec and probabaly need to make hand holding house calls to save your job. (remember airfare can get expensive if denied by accounting)

[humbleboy]

i think 352 x 480 will be good how many MB will be for one minute ? the file will be uploaded once to our website where people can download from there so my main concern is to make it smallest.
I dont understand what you mean in the last sentence !! i am authorized to upload & download anything on our lan, thank you

[edDV]

Download and install the Windows Media Encoder.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/default.aspx

try the differnt compressions under "file download - computer playback"
start with
1Mbps or one that suits your file size requirement

[humbleboy]

WME works great and just what i need
thanks for all the help