so i was uploading my latest tutorial to Vimeo, when I realized that the video file was 550MB - and I’m only allowed 500MB of uploads on Vimeo.
So I was wondering - do any of you know of a good video format (and/or converter) that will compress a 1h-long video smaller than 500MB? i currently use Windows Movie Maker to export in HD WMV, and it’s a very good image quality.
it also must be in HD. 1280x720 at 5.9Mbps is what I use in Movie Maker.
if I can use Blender 2.49 (or 2.5) to convert it into the proper format I’d be very happy
thanks!
p.s. I also tried using Camstudio’s built-in AVI-to-Flash converter, but it never works…
edit - I just tried importing the WMV into Blender’s video editor, but the sound is always shorter than the video could this be because of the frame rate?
um, yeah, i’ve read it, but that doesn’t really help much right now… I don’t have any programs that convert to MP4, and I don’t even know if MP4s are smaller than WMVs
any other suggestions? btw, please don’t suggest I download illegal versions of programs for video conversion (such as Ulead or Adobe Premiere), the reasons being :
#1, I’m trying to steer clear of illegal downloads as much as I can #2, this is a Blender tutorial, so open-source would be preferable
You can use Handbrake to convert to mp4. I’d recommend using H.264 with a max/average bitrate of 40 Mbps as that is the normal blu ray bitrate. (That’s 40 mega BITS per second, not BYTES) 40 Mbps = 5 MBps
Also, I’m amazed your computer could even play a 550 MB video file… It certainly wouldn’t be able to play once it was up on vimeo though.
um, roofoo, I’ve exported in HD from Movie Maker before, I don’t need a tutorial lol, thanks anyway
as for Handbrake, i’m waiting for a test conversion, but I’ll check those settings in case I messed something up thanks!
edit - I had most of the settings ok for Handbrake, but I changed them to match that screenshot - sad thing is I had to discard 40minutes of conversion work
to quote Mumbo Jumbo in Banjo-Tooie, “Hope this works…”
The same video encoded as an mp4 or as a wmv or as an mpg2 at the same resolution and same bitrate would each make a file the same size (more or less).
The advantage of using a more modern efficient codec is that you can create a file of the same quality by using a lower bitrate, thus a smaller file size. You don’t have to stick to the same 5.9Mbps you use already to keep your current quality. If vimeo can use variable bit rate encoding use that as well so you can bring the average bit rate down even further.
File size is a function of bitrate and video/audio length, not whatever codec you use.
um…what? lol, sorry, I still have a lot to learn about video encoding and stuff…
so if I convert it to MP4 in Handbrake, but bring down the bitrate (which I previously had set to 5000, like roofoo suggested), it would make a smaller file-size without losing image quality? hmm, I’ll try it out
edit - so I started up a test run, with the Average bit-rate set to 2500 (half the previous setting) now all I have to do is wait for another half-hour
re-edit - woah. I converted a ~10min, 87.5MB file using 250kbits/s, and it gave out a HD file only ~30MB in size! WOOHOO!!!
btw, please don’t suggest I download illegal versions of programs for video conversion (such as Ulead or Adobe Premiere), the reasons being :
(got it in 2008, and it’s a dual-core)
lol, thanks anyway 
lol, sorry, I still have a lot to learn about video encoding and stuff…