Digital Video Processing Question

[barcotta]

We've seen some great feedback regarding laptops and such, and I have completely frustrated myself trying to figure this out, so if you have any experience at all with video editing, please see if you can help me.

I have taken A LOT of M-JPEG video on my Canon camera and would love to post it to youtube or anywhere else, really. The problem is--the files are HUGE. Three minutes=100MB! It doesn't matter if I save them as an AVI or MOV, they're still massive. I sense that I'm going to have to break down and actually BUY SOFTWARE (I can barely even type it) but I would like to know how best to compress this video to a managable size. When I upload to youtube, the quality is horrible. I've seen plenty of acceptable quality youtube videos that are 10 minutes long and I'm sure they didn't start with a 500MB file.

To be clear, while youtube is one option--I really just need to know how best to make a smaller finished product. I know that I can reduce the screen size and resolution--but those really aren't options since I'm shooting wide and a smaller screen will make the video useless. Any ideas at all will be greatly appreciated.

[skyfall123]

B,

If you download the trial version of PremierPro CS3 you can experiment with the various codecs used to encode video
Adobe - Downloads

You import your files onto the timeline then go to file, export, and Adobe export options....from there you encode in Flash, Quicktime, Windows Media etc...

Should you decide to purchase any encoding software Premeire, Sorenson Squueze etc.... use your TESC or EC student discount at Academic Superstore or one of the other Academic software discounters.

If you need some tutorials, the absolute best value is Learning @ Your Own Pace® - lynda.com
where you pay $25 a month and can access there entire library of relevant videos.