Size of .avi files???

I'm a beginner using Adobe premier 6.0 and I've made my first 2 videos. The problem is that they are like 700mb - way too big for most intents and purposes.

Can someone tell me how to shrink or compress the files and not loose too much quality??

I know this should be in the Audio Video forum but there's not very much traffic over there.

Thanks!

Actually there's plenty of people that will answer your question in that forum. You can't compress the video to a reasonable size without losing quality. Your options are Quicktime or Windows Media, both of which are supported by Premiere. Do a search and I think you will find instructions how to do export the video, or you can download the free utility from Microsoft that will convert the .avi files to .wmv.

I exported the video and it is still in avi format. And it's still very big. What is the name of the utility that compresses the file (with as little loss as possible)?

Thanks Bill.

dave I had the same problem... heres wat u do go to Cnet.com and look up avi converters download one of them and convert the video to wmv. thats wat i did and it worked

tparider - Here's a step by step (with screen shots) on compressing your videos using Window Media Encoder 9 (which is FREE)

1) go to http://www.dpcfilms.com/howto/
2) Click on the "How to Compress your Wakeboard videos (word .doc)" link
3) Compress

In step 7 I use "ISO MPEG-4 Video V1", but you can use "Windows Media Video V8" or greater.


On average my videos (after compression) are 3mb per minute. If you have any questions let me know.

(Message edited by dcervenka on March 13, 2004)

Thanks a lot, DVD.

Hey, didn't you shoot Matt from on top of Jaime's condo the other day - how was it? See you in a couple of weeks.

Hey Dave - bad news. The Windows Media Encoder only works on certain OS's - I am on 98 SE and it won't work. I guess I'll try the download of a standard avi converter.

David

dcervenka, much thanks!

Okay, I looked around online and couldn't find any tools that would make my avi files shrink to 10mb instead of 700mb. Can anyone help? Thanks.

You just need to install some codecs first, when you are exporting in premiere, it must say something other than uncompressed avi, look for something like divx in the list and press configure and give it a bitrate of around 1000kbits/sec

david,
i had the same problem. I made a video for my friends band and it was 991mb in an avi format. I got it down to 9.01mb using adobe premiere 6.0. I lost a lot of quality. You can see them at my site to get an idea www.geocities.com/wadalot. When you go to export it where the side menu comes up there is a thing named save for web. click on it and it goes to a thing where you have to click the file type and name, then it goes to a program called cleaner ez and it compresses it. if you have any problems post again.(i think i listed all of the steps)

Jon - if that video was with the actual music, you can tell the drummer that I said he is a bad ass.

I'll give it a shot and hopefully have some videos up soon!

it is a song from there site. I filmed it all at one of there shows and put it all together. He is 16 and has played for like 14 years. The guitar player is his brother and he is 13.

You can download the free Windows Media Encoder from the Microsoft website to convert .avi files to .wmv.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5691ba02-e496-465a-bba9-b2f1182cdf24&DisplayLang=en

Just select the "Convert a File" wizard and then select the file to convert, choose "File Download" for the content distribution, then choose the VHS Quality option and either CD Quality sound or Voice Quality (sound won't be great but the file will be smaller). This will give you a okay looking video that runs about 2MB per minute.

You can edit the default setting to improve the video output quality too.

awesome - thanks a lot Bill.

Hey Bill - small problem - that encoder requires XP or Windows 2000 to use it. I have 98 SE.

I tried JonB's idea above and it seems to be working - it just takes awhile for the encoding process.

Thanks for the tips everyone.

Okay, try this link for the 7.1 version of the encoder...or just use the other method.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e0ab51dc-e509-4bc2-ae47-507856f9ddc3&DisplayLang=en

thanks again Bill - I'm trying it right now. I took an hour to get the video to .wav format and it's only 7mb now, but it looks like crap.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

the format that we put it too is wmv and the think is under brodband/lan.

tparider - classic, I was zoning at the time... didn't realize that was you. yeah we got some good footage last week. 2 weeks and counting (can't wait)!

What speed is your processor? Sound like you've got an older PC? (an hour to compress...?)

Even with Encoder 7, you should be able to use the setting from my instructional doc.

::::: ADUDIO :::::::
Audio Format: 40kbps, 32 kHz stereo CBR

::::: VIDEO ::::::::
Video Size: 320 x 240
Frame Rate: “15” or “14.985”
Video Bit Rate: 250K (or greater)bps
Key Frame Interval: 1
Buffer Size: 60 secs
Video Smoothness: 85+

Okay, now that I'm using the encoder it's taking about 10 minutes to compress a 780mb video down to under 10mb using the parameters you listed above.

My computer is a few years old and the processor blows. I'm just not in a position to get a whole new one right now. Hey, is it feasible to buy a new processor and/or motherboard to speed up my machine without buying a whole new machine?

You're better off with a new machine. I actually whiped my machine clean and reinstalled windows with the bare minimum programs. I have a P3 667 and it runs pretty fast now that it's cleaned up. When was the last time you did a clean install of windows? This helps.

how did it end uo working david