How To Compress Large Video Files Into Different Formats & Keep Quality

Remember, Google is your friend. Hope this helps you with your video marketing.

Recently I bought the rights to resell a couple of video products. The problem was that
one of those products was a 320 MB zipped download consisting of three files. When
unzipped, the total file size was over 460 MB because two of the files are over 100 MB
and the third is over 200 MB.

So basically I would be selling people two and a half hours of video with a total file size
of over 460 MB. I'm on a very fast connection and I have more space on my hard drive
than I could probably fill up. They sell 1 1/2 Terabyte drives now. ;-)

But not everyone has unlimited bandwidth or storage space so the smaller you can make
your videos while preserving quality the better. Right?

Anyway, not only were the videos very large, they only worked with Windows media
player and a special codec needed to be downloaded (GotoMeeting codec) in order for
the video to be visible. The first thing I thought was this would be a hassle to explain
to customers and just having a Windows format would limit my business.

I tried to convert the videos to FLASH using Camtasia Studio 6 but even after I
installed the correct codec, Camtasia wouldn't recognize the video format.


The Solution?

After lots of searching on Google, I found a program called "Prism Video Converter"
which allowed me to convert the .wmv's into .avi's that were up to 40% smaller than
the original files while maintaining the quality. The resulting .avi's weren't dependent
on the codec the original files couldn't run without. I was then able to use Camtasia
Studio 6 to convert the videos into FLASH for web browsers.

I used the FREE basic version of the "Prism Video Converter". Also, if I didn't have
Camtasia Studio, I could have (using the "Prism" software) turned the large .wmv's
into .flv's which only require a FREE .flv player to work.

I personally use the "VLC Media Player" which works on Windows and MAC.


The Final Result

Instead of asking customers to download a 320 MB file that unzipped to over 460
MB, they can either download a single 175 MB file that unzips to 200 MB or all three
files individually. Their zipped file sizes are 58 MB, 71 MB and 46 MB. Much more
manageable than three separate 100+ MB zipped downloads.

Plus, all of the videos are now in FLASH format so they play in any web browser.
I made no changes to the contents of the videos themselves. Just compressed and
converted them into a new multi-platform format.

I don't usually post much because I'm busy working on projects but I know that alot
of you create your own videos and sometimes have to deal with large file sizes that
make it hard to distribute the final product so I hope this helps.

Sometimes you end up with a larger file than you planned on so hopefully "Prism
Video Converter" will allow you to scale down your file sizes as much as possible
to make it easier on your hosting account and your customers when they download.

Took me a few hours to find the right conversion program that also compressed the
videos without losing quality.

Take care,

Anthony