Smallest file size

[pierced100]

I need to add a video clip to my website. The clip is about 6 minutes long. At the moment the clip is in the middle of a DVD. I first need to convert the vob files and the cut the resulting file so I have the clip. I need my website clients to be able to download the clip as fast as possible (I am an alternative therapist and the clip simply shows my clients some chinese meridian points on the body). So my question is when converting the vob files which will give me the smallest file size? mpeg, avi, wmv, divx etc The quality does not have to be high. I just need the end file on my website be a quick download.

[Baldrick]

You can get same size for all formats, the video, audio bitrate and runtime decide the output file size. But wmv,divx,h264,flv are best for lower video bitrate / smaller files. Use a low resolution/frame size also like 320x240.

Cut out the vob with for example dvd shrink in reauthoring mode.
Convert to DivX or Xvid AVI with AutoGK, set the output file size.
Convert to WMV with WME or WMM.

[pierced100]

Thank you I will try that now

[pierced100]

Hi could I ask you some more questions please.

I have cut out the clip I need using DVD shrink reauthoring. DVD shrink has given me a DVD with just the clip that I need. The length is 7 minutes 34 seconds and the vob file size is 314 MB (322,146 KB). Have I done this part right?

When I open AutoGK I select the VOB file as the input file and select the output folder. What do I choose for the custom output file size? As the vob file is 314 MB do I choose 314 MB or can I reduce the file size? If I can reduce the file size what do you think will be the lowest file size I can choose?

Once I have chosen my custom output file size do I simply click on add job and then start?

[pierced100]

I carried on and ran the vob file through AutoGK. I chose the output file size as 314 mb. AutoGK then gave me an AVI file of 272 MB. I then ran the AVI file through WMM and this gave me a WMV file of 48.8 MB

So I have got the result file I need of just the clip I need but I feel that 48.8 MB is still to big a file size for a clip that is 7 minutes 34 seconds long.

Where did I go wrong? Should I have chosen a smaller output file size in AutoGK?

In any of the programs I did not notice any options for setting things like resolution/frame rate, audio bit rate etc.

[jman98]

My suggestions are as follows.

Rip the DVD to your hard drive, find the vob with the clip and just edit out the segment you want using VideoReDo or MPEGVCR and save it as an MPEG-2 file. Now re-encode this to either MPEG-1 or QuickTime. Why? Well, trust me, unless you really have the time and energy to hear endless "I can't play your video - you suck!" type responses from know nothing people who download it, converting it to either MPEG-1 (I'd suggest VCD compatible video to save space) or QuickTime will give you the greatest chance of success. In fact, EVERYBODY should be able to play MPEG-1 video. QuickTime officially doesn't run on a few less common OSes (ie. Unix based), but there are solutions that anyone with such systems has probably installed. You are wasting your time and asking for trouble if you use any other format than the 2 I mentioned. Plenty of people have no idea how to play Divx files and WMV is bad for non-Windows systems, although like with Quick Time, some workarounds MAY allow those people to play the files. MPEG-1 should be playable anywhere. I had an old Sun box running an old copy of Solaris and it wouldn't play anything but MPEG-1, but it would play that.

[pierced100]

Actually that is very important. I wasn't thinking about other OS's such as Mac. I will give your method a try now.

[Cornucopia]

While jman98 has good suggestions, I wouldn't agree to that method for this job...

VCD bitrates for a 6 min. clip = ~60MB! That's quite alot for many people to download, and since MPEG1 isn't really "stream-able", they'd have to wait nearly the whole time before they could see it (although I know QT will cache enough to start playback). There is a reason Flash and Youtube are in such vogue!

I'd rip the DVD to mpg2, edit the clip with cuttermaran, and convert to FLV/SWF with Super. I'd crop/resize to 320x240 and maybe drop the framerate down to 15fps. Audio could be mono. Then, I'd use a bitrate of ~200kbps. That's about 1/6th of the VCD bitrate, and quality will be ~ the same or maybe even better. Most people can watch SFW Flash files--PC or Mac--and if they don't have one already, they can easily DL the player plugin.

Scott

[pierced100]

Ah but the video will not be embeded on the website. It will be seperate link that should open in the appropriate player. So for example if I save the clip as chinesepoints.wmv the link to the video would be something like www.mywebsite.html/chinesepoints.wmv

I do need the clip to be streamable. So if MPEG-1 is not streamable what universal format could I go for?

Basically access to the video is not shown on my website. You have to know the precise web address

[Cornucopia]

You don't have to "embed" anything. The file:http://static.kdenews.org/mirrors/malte.homeip.net/base.swf isn't embedded, it's just a link to where it's stored. Your browser (with Flash plugin) just happens to be the "default" player.

Scott

[pierced100]

Ok thanks I will give that a try .