Compressing movie file?

Does anyone know how to compress video files so that it is small enough for emailing?

In my case, my movie files are mostly taken 320x240 for about 1 minute or so, and that creates large files, up to 18+MB. I tried to zip the file, but it didn't help much - it only came down to 1-2 MB less.

Thanks!
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Nina Poerbonegoro, Honolulu

Your video is already compressed, which is why zipping the file won't make it any smaller (or might even make it larger).

To make it smaller you would have to re-encode it with a more efficient codec and/or by reducing resolution, frame rate, and overall quality.

Video editing makes image editing look like child's play in comparison. Personally, I've approached the subject many times and every time I've come away with the impression that the learning curve and effort required to work with video are not worth my time.

Nina said:

Does anyone know how to compress video files so that it is small
enough for emailing?

In my case, my movie files are mostly taken 320x240 for about 1
minute or so, and that creates large files, up to 18+MB. I tried to
zip the file, but it didn't help much - it only came down to 1-2 MB
less.

Thanks!
--
Nina Poerbonegoro, Honolulu

Click to expand...

I think your best effort/compression (at least for someone who isn't an expert at video editing) is going to be divx. Try downloading the software available at http://www.divx.com . I've used it on a video out of my camera, and it reduced the size by about 50% without a major loss in quality.

Darin C said:

I think your best effort/compression (at least for someone who
isn't an expert at video editing) is going to be divx. Try
downloading the software available at http://www.divx.com . I've used it
on a video out of my camera, and it reduced the size by about 50%
without a major loss in quality.

Click to expand...

just tried a very quick test using Windows Movie Maker and an odd scrap of video from my S400. Original size 6Mb, medium quality saved to 280k, low quality saved to 70k. There are a lot of other quality options in "others", but I haven't tried them for this check. Result is the medium quality version is reasonably watchable, and if you just wanted to give someone a little clip to get a feel for the event, it would be quite useful. Low quality is not really watchable. I find Movie Maker quite useful because (a) it's free with ME/XP, and (b) it's very easy to use. Also practically everyone can play the files with no problem at all.