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I would be *very* grateful for any help with this problem.
I am not real familiar with video editing or compressing and am hoping someone can point me in the right direction on how to make existing videos smaller.
These are videos that will be served off a vbulliten type forum.
(My level of expertise is that I have a copy of Virtdub but do not quite have a grasp of filter use and which codec to use for compression for a given video, etc..)
Here is what I need to do.
We have a large number of existing video clips in a variety of formats: MPG, AVIwith various codecs for compression including Divx 5 and also Divx 3.11, and also some WMV.
They are of various lengths and quality ... a few as long as 1 hour plus.
We want to take those existing video clips and shrink them down to as small a file size as possible (!!). So that they are able to be downloaded from our forum in fewer file pieces ... and (importantly for me!!) making it easier when it comes time to upload the videos to make them available ... which tends to be a HORRIBLE marathon at the beginning of semesters but ongoing as well.
AUDIO QUALITY
The audio is primarily all spoken ... as long as the speaker is able to be understood then that is fine for the dialog.
VIDEO QUALITY
The video needs to be clear enough to be able to see what is being written on the chalk board/dry-erase, or on various visual aids. So the video does not have to be great ... but decent and legible without jerky video or freezes.
We hope to stay away from 'Realplayer' products, Mac/quicktime, and flash. Either numbered/split file extentions (ie. .001, .002 etc) or multiple mpgs would both be ok ... in general the simpler the better ... but like I say the overall file size is the big thing.
MY SYSTEM
I am going to be doing the converting on a 460mhz celeron II with 256k of ram running windows 98.
FORUM USERS
are accessing on a variety of laptops and desktops many running windows 98 still ... and many of which have very slow dialup connections. They will be storing these clips for review on their own hard drives etc.
WHAT I NEED IS:
1) Recommendations for how to actually do the re-compressing etc ... including what compression (codecs) might be best to use (any explanations here would be most welcome!!! I've had no success finding info on the differences and uses of various codecs). Like I say our real big goal is to make the clips as small as possible!
2) Recomendations to any software that might be necessary to convert these clips (it will need to be *free* ... we have no funding for this at all).
Like I say, I have Virtdub ... but I've had *NO* success in getting any of the test files I've done to recompress to a size smaller than the originals.
(Also, if possible (though certainly NOT required) I'd like students to be able to run the videos even if they happen to be missing segments of a video that has been split using splitting software ... something that I haven't been able to do with AVI's.
3) Any extra instructions about other settings that might make the videos smaller. From reading around on this and other websites I've seen it mentioned to do things like reduce the "frames per second" (?), or to reduce the "frame size" ... neither of which I quite understand but am willing to learn if someone can give me a reasonable explanation of the steps involved.
I realize this might be a tall order but would be most grateful for any ideas that anyone might have.
Many thanx!
Sonny
I am not real familiar with video editing or compressing and am hoping someone can point me in the right direction on how to make existing videos smaller.
These are videos that will be served off a vbulliten type forum.
(My level of expertise is that I have a copy of Virtdub but do not quite have a grasp of filter use and which codec to use for compression for a given video, etc..)
Here is what I need to do.
We have a large number of existing video clips in a variety of formats: MPG, AVIwith various codecs for compression including Divx 5 and also Divx 3.11, and also some WMV.
They are of various lengths and quality ... a few as long as 1 hour plus.
We want to take those existing video clips and shrink them down to as small a file size as possible (!!). So that they are able to be downloaded from our forum in fewer file pieces ... and (importantly for me!!) making it easier when it comes time to upload the videos to make them available ... which tends to be a HORRIBLE marathon at the beginning of semesters but ongoing as well.
AUDIO QUALITY
The audio is primarily all spoken ... as long as the speaker is able to be understood then that is fine for the dialog.
VIDEO QUALITY
The video needs to be clear enough to be able to see what is being written on the chalk board/dry-erase, or on various visual aids. So the video does not have to be great ... but decent and legible without jerky video or freezes.
We hope to stay away from 'Realplayer' products, Mac/quicktime, and flash. Either numbered/split file extentions (ie. .001, .002 etc) or multiple mpgs would both be ok ... in general the simpler the better ... but like I say the overall file size is the big thing.
MY SYSTEM
I am going to be doing the converting on a 460mhz celeron II with 256k of ram running windows 98.
FORUM USERS
are accessing on a variety of laptops and desktops many running windows 98 still ... and many of which have very slow dialup connections. They will be storing these clips for review on their own hard drives etc.
WHAT I NEED IS:
1) Recommendations for how to actually do the re-compressing etc ... including what compression (codecs) might be best to use (any explanations here would be most welcome!!! I've had no success finding info on the differences and uses of various codecs). Like I say our real big goal is to make the clips as small as possible!
2) Recomendations to any software that might be necessary to convert these clips (it will need to be *free* ... we have no funding for this at all).
Like I say, I have Virtdub ... but I've had *NO* success in getting any of the test files I've done to recompress to a size smaller than the originals.
(Also, if possible (though certainly NOT required) I'd like students to be able to run the videos even if they happen to be missing segments of a video that has been split using splitting software ... something that I haven't been able to do with AVI's.
3) Any extra instructions about other settings that might make the videos smaller. From reading around on this and other websites I've seen it mentioned to do things like reduce the "frames per second" (?), or to reduce the "frame size" ... neither of which I quite understand but am willing to learn if someone can give me a reasonable explanation of the steps involved.
I realize this might be a tall order but would be most grateful for any ideas that anyone might have.
Many thanx!
Sonny