Converting AVI to Mpeg, help pls

[Souwalker]

Hi
I have a very dumb question. My daughters digital camera can take 30 seconds video in AVI format. I'd like to be able to convert that AVI file to a much small mpeg (I don't know which is better mpeg 2 or 3) to be able to email as an attachment.
Any free tools available?
Many Thanks
Patrick

[kschang]

Try SUPER

[Souwalker]

Thanks
I also googled and tried one similar type of convertors to convert avi to mpeg but the converted file was larger then the original avi. AVI was about 50mb and the converted file was about 70..
Any clues?
Thanks

[ZippyP.]

The term "avi" doesn't mean much as many different types of video can be used in the avi container. Mpeg is not as compressed as many other video types so it is not unusual for it to be bigger than the source. Check your avi with Gspot and give us the results. Also state exactly what you are tring to accomplish, you'll likely get some suggestions.

[mats.hogberg]

You could also try Windows Movie maker, if it can import the AVI. It has several settings for small (=low quality) file sizes.

/Mats

[Souwalker]

How do people get those large video files into sizes of about 1mb+ mpegs that are attached to emails?
Rgds
pat

[redwudz]

It has to to with bitrate. Less bitrate=smaller file=lower quality. And some codecs like WMV are better for sending as an email attachment because they use more compression than a similar quality MPEG-2 such as you would have in a DVD. The downside of higher compression, besides quality loss, is that they take more computer power to compress and decompress. WMV is a good choice as it's fairly universal, at least with Windows computers. MPEG-1 is another choice that is universal to about every operating system on any computer.

Super also has some adjustments for the output file size. You can lower the Bitrate/kbps and use a codec with higher compression. You can also take the Video Scale Size down smaller and gain some there. Or lower the Frames per Second. Also lower the audio Sampling Frequency. Try the mpg (Mpeg1) output with those changes and see how it looks. WMV doesn't work too well in SUPER. WMM as mentioned would be a better choice there.

[Souwalker]

many thanks
Pat

[DePutoMadre]

also you could try VidLogo, it seems that it can do such types of conversion. just look for yourself