Problems compressing video.

[jammer20002]

I have some raw DV footage that I would like to compress.
So far, I'm finding this very hard to do.

The footage I'm compressing should give me a very small file as it's just interviews of people with no rapid movements or scene changes.

Instead, I'm getting 20 - 40 MB files for about 20 minutes footage.
(Also, this isn't even full screen size, just 500 x 400.)

I've tried two software programs.

The first is Ulead Studio.
So far this has given me the best results.
I can at least do SOMETHING: i.e. at least end up with a good quality (big in size) compressed video file.

The other software is Adobe Premiere.
So far I have found this to be very poor!
(I'm a very novice user - only started using it a few days ago.)
If I create a video file with no compression, the footage is fine.
If I go for a compressed video, it just comes out mangled!

What am I doing wrong?
What compression should I be using? Is it possible to get other algorithms into my programs to give the same compression as divX say?

IMPORTANTLY I need to take the video into Flash and export it to make a Flash video file.
I'm not sure if there will be a problem with Flash reading the video if it's divX or Xdiv.
(I haven't actually tried this yet though.)

Any help with the above would be appreciated.

Thanks.


Jam

[edDV]

Is your goal maximum compression?
How important is quality?
Do you want it to play on a DVD player?

In Premiere, what format were you compressing to? There are many. Which version Premiere?
Which compressor did you use in ULead Video studio to get to 20MB? Was it WMV?

There are tradeoffs for each format. Give us a better understanding of your goals for this video.

For Ref:

20 min of DV is about 4.3GB.
20 min of DVD MPeg2 is ~ 245MB to 1.5GB
20 min of VDC MPeg1 is ~ 190MB

[edDV]

IMPORTANTLY I need to take the video into Flash and export it to make a Flash video file.
I'm not sure if there will be a problem with Flash reading the video if it's divX or Xdiv.
(I haven't actually tried this yet though.)

Jam

The typical rule for compression is the highest quality input (i.e. DV) will produce the best compressed video quality. Why not go from edited DV to Flash directly?

http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/flash/articles/flv_howto.html
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/flash/articles/video_primer_02.html#thirdparty

[jammer20002]

edDV thanks for the replies.
it's been sooo useful.
u've at least solved my problem.

before: i was compressing video and then converting to flv by importing into flash and then exporting.

i'm now using sorenson squeeze.
that's solved a LOT of problems.
and i'm getting amazing quality.
(i had to play around a bit in the begining, but i'm getting the hang of it.)