Dv to smallest format

[humbleboy]

Hello all,

I have a task to compress 3 minutes of dv as small as possible to upload to my site. The main thing is not to lose much quality because the scene happens at early evening otherwise it won’t be recognized. I converted to wmv using 1500kbps, the quality was good but 45 MB is a lot and will consume much bandwidth on my site. I wonder which codec is the best to encode 3 mins to less than 10 Mb keeping high resolution .
Thanks for any help.

[Cornucopia]

Try working backwards:
3 min. = 180 seconds, 10 MBytes = 80 Mbits
Target bitrate <= 80 / 180 = .444 Mb/sec

Now, what codecs give high quality and high resolution at that bitrate? NONE.

Now you must decide where to compromise...

My suggestions:

1. DeInterlace and resize to 1/2 or 1/4 resolution (e.g. 720x480 NTSC DV --> 320x240)
2. Drop Framerate in 1/2 (e.g. 30/29.97 fps NTSC --> 15 fps)
3. Constrain color space (e.g. 24bit --> ~16bit), but don't dither.
4. Use advanced codecs (e.g. Sorenson3 or MPEG4 for Quicktime, Real9 for Realsystem, WMV9 for WindowsMedia, DivX5 etc for AVI)
5. If at all possible, ENCODE in 2pass VBR!--make target = avg. bitrate
6. Minimize (or drop completely) the bitrate requirements for audio
7. Judicious use of DNR/Blur/USM and Contrast/Gamma correction

Using a combination of the above, it's quite possible to get decent (subjectively) video through your available bandwidth.

HTH,
Scott