I have some footage on MiniDV that I would like to distribute on the web. The content is all in-car camera stuff, so the images move quickly and there is some camera vibration to contend with.

I’m looking for recommendations on the best container (AVI, ASF, QT, etc.) and codec (Divx, Indeo, etc.) to get good quality 360x240 (half minidv resolution) 30fps playback with low data rates.

I’m capturing and editing in Premiere 6.0, so it would be ideal if I could just render the timeline with the right codec and get good results, but I’m not against post-processing with VirtualDub, etc. if that’s what it takes.

Finally, I’m looking for something that can be shared easily so stock or easy to find / install codecs would be best. This is the lowest priority, just above MAC support.

A few specific questions:

1. What’s a good ballpark for the data rate (kb/sec) that’s required to get good results from 360x240 24bit 30fps video? What codecs are best suited for that target?

2. Are there tricks to using divx to create low data rate AVIs? I’ve seen some good results at less than 100kb/s with divx, but haven’t been happy with my own attempts to date.

3. What should I use to compress the audio? The source audio is questionable (lots of wind noise), so I don’t care much. An mp3 encoder that I could select in Premiere would be great, but I can’t seem to find one. Oog vorbis and AAC are both primarily for multi-channel audio ( > 2) right?