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I wonder if anyone can help me please.

I'm trying to format some video in a way that brings the file size right down but maximises the quality. It's to make some clips for an AdultWork page. I've had a reasonably successful stab at it but I'm wondering if I can do better.

I'm using a MacBook Pro, with Final Cut Pro 7.0.3, Compressor 3.5.3 and Flip4Mac's WMV Studio Pro. The footage was recorded on a Sony Handycam as 1440x1080i AVCHD.

-- I import it into FCP where it becomes Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i50, still at 1440, and I edit it. I export it in the same format.

-- I import the new QT movie into Compressor, where I use the iPod/iPhone preset to export as a 640x480 H.264 file (1500 kbps, progressive, multi-pass).

-- I import the H.264 file into FCP and export it as a Windows Media (WMV 9 Standard) file, with the quality level set to 86% and using a one pass, variable bit rate. The dimensions remain 640x480.

This process shrinks the size of the movie down from 7.76mb per second to .11mb. When I was playing around with things before I managed to get the mbs-per-second down to .08 and I was sure I was doing the same thing. I guess I'm getting a bit lost.

Anyway, since you can't charge anything less than one credit per mb of video for clips on AdultWork I'm obviously looking for a way to offer better value than I am at the moment. I've also had a look at some other people's videos on there and it seems like they've been able to achieve a higher quality of image for a similar (or less) amount of mbs per second.

Any help would be gratefully received.

Apple computers are good at quality but a pain when it come to variable qualities for anything else other than Apple, we convert our Apple friends vids for them shrinking a 25 min WMV 640x480 to 80mb because the nearest they can get them down to is 190mb.
If you can get your hands on windows computer download http://www.freemake.com , this handy little converter can get your clips in any format down to any size.

Oooh, .053mb per second. I want that, Kim! Thanks for the advice.

If you can find yourself a copy of visualhub by techspansion you will be able to compress better and save yourself a bit of importing/exporting to and from FCP/Compressor.

Thanks, Muswell. I've searched by nothing but dead ends. You don't have a copy, do you?