resizing videos

[chechu]

Hey all,
I'd like to place videos online that I have taken with my camera. Problem is that the size of the files are over 1MB. Therefore I wonder how I can lower the weight of the file, so it is easy to open and view it.
Example of what I am looking for can be seen here (http://www.bellewaerde.be/bellewaerde/home/index_nl.cfm) (don't know how long this video will be online).
Any free programs I can use ? Thanks !

[chechu]

Anyone ?

[djr33]

No way to do that in an automated sense, unless you were to create a complex system like what youtube uses to recompress the videos.
Do it manually, using any number of video programs, such as quicktime pro, adobe premiere, or a cheaper/free one like videodub. (I think that's popular with the PC people, anyway.) VLC also has some abilities with that.

I have no idea what you're shooting, but videos just take up space and 1mb isn't all that much if it's even slightly long, so you may be stuck with that. On top of it, the camera already compresses it a LOT, so you'll lose a lot of quality if you decide to make it smaller.

[jscheuer1]

Giraffen in de truck! I love it! is this one of your videos?

But the short answer to any video file size issue is - Use a conversion program that can handle various formats, generally you will want to output to the flash formats - .flv for inclusion in a .swf, or direct to .swf format, as flash is generally the most efficient video format. But, in certain cases, another format may be preferable. Research on your part may be required to determine the optimal format for your purposes.

However that turns out, video is much like an image, in that the more efficient the format, the smaller file size may be achieved, as well as the lower the resolution, dimensions and quality you can live with, the smaller the file will be.

[chechu]

Use a conversion program that can handle various formats, generally you will want to output to the flash formats
What program should I be looking for ?

[jscheuer1]

For conversion I use (both free):

http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

and/or:

http://www.winff.org/

Usually I will use both several times on a video to see what the best output I can get within a given range of file sizes might be. If I did more of this sort of thing though, I think I would have a feel for what might be best for a given video, saving me time. I've already developed this 'sixth sense' when it comes to optimizing images, something I do much more often.

If you are just interested in converting to Flash, with or without an automatically generated player and HTML code for it, this is good and the simplest to use (also free):

http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/products/dvd/Free-Video-to-Flash-Converter.htm

[chechu]

What is better to convert the videos in: .flv or .swf ? It seems that .swf is without toolbar, and .flv with.
What programs are most used to run videos, to avoid having to place "to view the video, please download ..." ?