anyone knows how to compress avi files so they can be used onthe net

so far i have been encoding then into rm amd wdm

but that way i am totally losing way too much graphic resolution

a friend was able to do it and put it on his site as avi format but he does not know the program he used to compress the files down but his images are just about as clear as the presompressed images

he told me he got the the program from here

any one with info plz help!!

better yet if anyone knows if there is a better way of getting your dv cam videos into tte web with out losing much from othe originals plz share!