LowTech1

You guys who mess with video and whatnot, I've got a question...


This camera of mine (256mb card in it) can do like 12-15 mins of video.

The problem is, when the videos done, it's 200 megs. Thats too fucking big, I'm pretty sure.

How do I make the damned things smaller? (It's .mov format when it comes out, if that helps)

Help's appreciated.

-JT

MerF

If you plug it into any editing program (Windows Movie Maker for the thrifty, Adobe Premiere or another third-party for those willing to pay) it will convert/compress it for you.

Keep in mind, this sounds like you are using a point-shoot PHOTO camera for movies, so I'm sure your framerate is around 15-20, whereas NTSC standard is 29.97 fps, so unless you tell whatever program it is what your source video's timecode is, it's going to be choppy when it renders it. I used Adobe Premiere 6.0 before I had a mini-DV and tried doing little videos with a Sony P&S camera and the results were horrible.

LowTech1

Yup. nikon p2.

whatever the hell that means...

Should I even bother? The little ones ive done so far don't look as horrible as i figured they would.

MerF

LOL...sorry. Standard DV (digital video) shoots at around 30 Frames Per Second (fps)...it's actually 29.97 fps, but calling it 30 is safe enough. But if your picture camera shot that fast, it would be as big as DV is (roughly 20Gb/hour), so they combat that by only capturing half as many frames or so (and less quality). The result is video that's "choppy" but acceptable for just shooting something for family or friends.
Hey, if it looks good to you, then do it! If it's video you plan on releasing to the public, just understand that if it's too choppy or low-resolution, you're going to catch flak.

Hope that helps.

LowTech1

Dude, this is Drag. You catch flak for everything.
It's expected.

vmspionage

chop the sections you want, encode with divx

http://www.virtualdub.org/
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/...Codec_Pack.htm

MerF

Ya know, I used to be all abotu DivX, but honestly, with the codecs Windows has for Media PLayer 9+, .wmv is better for less space than .avi is. Granted, .avi is more "raw", but for practical web applications, you're better off just rendering a .wmv or .mpeg.

Just my opinion.

vmspionage

I agree new wmv compression is pretty decent but you lose cross platform support as well as slower machines render choppy due to more processing power needed. I have a windows mobile hp4155 with a 400mhz processor and it decodes a 240x320 wmv choppy almost regardless of the quality settings. But I dont use any compression unless I have to, all of my content and dvds are stored uncompressed mpeg2/vob.

MerF

You see, maybe my vid card is fucked up, because I will get choppy with .avi WAY before I will with a .wmv, even with a huge bitrate, I will be able to play Windows media better...hmmm.

vmspionage

I think it's just PocketDivX > WM9 for PPC. I've never seen choppy video on my pc anyways (wc+tec opteron 165@3ghz, 7800GT SLI)