Video Compression With Windows Movie Maker
In the introduction to video compression I mentioned that most editing programs come with built in compression options. Today I’m going to talk a bit about how to compress videos with Windows Movie Maker.
Where Are The Compression Options?
WWM doesn’t openly tell you that you’re compressing the video. Instead it simply gives you options under the title “Finish Movie” on the left hand side. Maybe you’ve even used it before and didn’t make the connection between finishing the movie and compressing the video information. Now you know!
What Settings Are The Best?
I’d love to give a quick answer, but there are no “best” settings because everyone has different needs for their video. In this case we’re going “Save To My Computer” and then post the videos online. I’m not choosing “Save To Web” because WWM will try to make me sign up for a video host. I already host my videos with Vimeo (today I’ll just be using the server space because I don’t want to show off these clips), so I don’t need one. Also, I want to know where my video is saved on my hard drive.
1. Choose a name for your video, then the location that you wish to save it.
2. On the next screen choose “Other Settings”. All of the options that come up with make a Windows Media Video (.wmv) file except for “DV-AVI (NTSC)” or DV-AVI(PAL)” if you’re using PAL. That setting will create a full quality .AVI file.
3. Consider your audience when choosing your compression setting. If you’re uploading a 45 minute video to the internet, using a high quality setting like “Video For Local Playback (2.1mbps)” will result in a very long download time. If you choose an option that compresses the video a lot like “Video For Dialup Access (38kbps), you’ll end up with poor quality. So which do you think is more important to your viewers? Clicking on an option will give you a file size estimate, as well as tell you some other things about the setting such as the resolution and frame rate. Keep these in mind when making your choice.
If you still don’t know what to choose, try a few out and see how they look/sound. Above are link to two copies of the same video for you to preview.
November 8th, 2007 at 8:17 am
Thank you. I have been experimenting, reading blogs but you have explained it nicely.