Help Fitting Videos on CD...

[skinnerback]

I am creating a CD-ROM with a Director-created interface. The disk is going to be showing videos, photos, and resource files. I need to get 20 4-5 minute videos down to no more than 400-500 MB in order to fit them on the disk with the other files that need to be on the disk too. I want the videos to be compatible on both Windows and Mac systems, so I am looking to get them into possibly a quicktime format. Right now they are in various formats (avi, wmv, vob, dv, and mov) and range in file sizes up to 1 GB (the .dv).

Specs of what I need:
Videos to be Windows and Mac compatible (quicktime if possible)
No more than 20-25 MB for each video
They sit in a container in the Director movie at 612 x 408.

Any ideas of how to convert these out to get the file sizes small enough, while maintaining good quality at the specified dimensions? I have Premiere Pro and After Effects, and Flash (if I need to go a flash based route) -- all ligit CS3 copies, as well as various free software found on this site.

[mats.hogberg]

Hmm... 1.40 worth of video, 500 MB - I'd say you'll have a hard time getting "good quality". We're looking at 500 kbps video with 96 kbps audio. No matter what codec, that sounds too low for 612 x 408. Try QuickTime or some FLV encoder (at those bit rates), and see if you're satisfied with the quality.
Most universally compatible video codec is mpg1, but that's completely out of the question at that bitrate.
/Mats

[skinnerback]

one advantage is that the videos are not high quality to start. They where filmed by students as a project, most of which used old video cameras, Windows Movie Maker, or camera bundled software. Its not like I'm dealing with DVD quality trying to get close to original, I think these settings seem to work, I've only converted 2 of the 20 with these settings so far, but there wasnt much loss with those.

[mats.hogberg]

one advantage is that the videos are not high quality to start.

Unfortunately, that's a disadvantage. Specially if it's shaky hand cam material. Eats bitrate like h*ll.

/Mats

[Cornucopia]

I'd pre-process by reducing colours, contrast and framerate, then save as newest flash, or as quicktime h.264 at 312x204 having it set to playback at 2x size (either QT itself, or Director if using Flash). Similarly for the audio, I'd bandwidth-limit/filter and NR and Dynamics pre-process. That should work fine in a Director project.

Scott