Help:Converting And Get Right File Size?

[Blå_Mocka]

Im a newbie in the video converting buisness, and oviosly i need some help
i have tested alot of pure converting softwares, incomon is that no matter wich off them i test, the converted output file allways gets to big in size

in my case i have a full movie in WMV-file on 233 Mb. im trying to convert it to a AVI..and for me it becomes in size over 1 Gb output..not to "satesfeing"
this is not the first time. no matter what file and format i have tryed to convert, is getting to big
and when i see files that others have created, often full movies
thath thei have somhow succeded to comprimize to around 300 Mb AVI, how do thei do?
its a mystery to me what the P2P generation converting secreds are?

still there is allways a option in the converting softwares to - Not Resize the Output File, i allways check this option, but it doesnt do any change at all
perhaps the big problem for me is that there is about 15 different codec alterantives to shoose in the converting softwares.
when i shoose AVI for example. its hard to know if i shall shoose VCD,XVID,Mpeg 4 codec and whatever it is
i dont want to make DVD ore anything advanced. i just want to convert a WMV to a standard AVI perhaps MPG? i dont know mutch about file formats really,
the only thing i want really is to get it in better image qualite than WMV can offer..and the size goal for me is to get that 233 Mb to become around 300-450 Mb? if that is possible?

can anybody be kind enough and recommend me what codec/format/rezise settings i shall use on my file-example above..all converting softwares seem to work nearly the same so i think i can apply your advices on any of them

help is mutch appretiated

[thecoalman]

File size is dependant on the bitrate ,lower the bitrate and you get a smaller file.

[kschang]

i would recommend studying teh glossary (look on your left in the menu) on "what is AVI".

If you read that, you would understand that there is no such thing as "standard AVI".

And when you convert (or in this case, transcode) you can only LOSE quality. So if you're expecting "better image quality than WMV" you need to study up on transcoding as well.

[Nelson37]

Output format is dependent on desired mode of playback. PC can handle almost anything, Standard DVD is MPG-2 only, with MPG-1 an option, some players can also handle Xvid or Divx, but these are the minority. Standalone players have very specific requirements on resolution, audio format, others.

If your goal is better video image quality, STOP RIGHT THERE. It will not happen, re-encoding ALWAYS decreases quality. The videos you are comparing to are starting with a high-quality source, not an already-heavily-compressed source, like you have.

Also, saying AVI is like saying "truck". Many possible variations with extreme differences. The term AVI is essentially useless as a descriptive term.

[Blå_Mocka]

Ok. i guess i dont need to convert it then

this was new info for me..so thanks for the replies