Can you create a small file high quality MPEG?

[kevink]

I'm sure that MarkE19 will sort this one out for me!

I am using Pinnacle Studio 9 Plus (it's falling over a bit as other reviews say) but have managed to create a couple of very satisfactory projects. However, I would like to be able to post a relatively small mpeg file to my up and coming website. Unfortunately the mpeg file created by Pinnacle for a 1 minute clip (with a lot of transitions, granted) is over 37 meg, whats more the quality isn't all that.
Anyone know how to do voodoo and create a smaller file yet keep, or improve quality?

[MarkE19]

You called

Video for the web is now often encoded to MPEG-4 as it can be far smaller than DVD compliant MPEG-2. DIVx etc are types of MPEG-4, so it is fairly common format. But the chances are you will need to buy either a DIVX plugin for the editing software or even a standalone program to do the conversion. I'm not sure if any free programs are available, but I'm sure others will let you know if there are.

Mark.

yes check out www.divx.com

i'm managing to get 1minute clips down to around 5 or 6meg with very high quality, its not much degraded from the original source, i have reduced the size down a little to 640x480 pixels,

i use a divx codec for video compression and an mp3 codec for audio compression, you can get these on the web if you look around.

you should try encoding using multiple passes to get the best quality, I use virtualdub as the editing software, this can be gotten from the web too.

you may also be interested in www.doom9.org for lots of useful advice etc for video editing/compression etc etc

-rcladin

[kevink]

I followed up on the Divx functionality. It's supported in Pinnacle 9 strangely enough, as is MPEG4 (as long as you spend another six quid with them to unlock it)
remarkably, reasonably good quality and 1 minute video at 3 meg. Outstanding.

Thanks guys.