hi
I am currently making a film with Simon, and I was wondering, what is the best type of compression to use?
I use Divx, and I know simon has got it, and so has Phil, and i think Andrew Carter has it too.
Please give me advise on what compression to use…
Cheers,
Joe
DivX is the way forward, you know it makes sense. There are very few half-decent compressors that are free.
I’m watching XviD… it’s a branch of DivX that hasn’t “sold out” and become a business. At the moment it’s not as popular, so I’d stick with DivX for the time being, but that might change if DivX start charging or something.
Phil
Windows media *.wmv is a good compression format. Good quality for the file sizes.
Also if you use Movie Maker on XP, it outputs to WMV by default. Obviously the disadvantage is that it is not very Mac friendly.
I generally use Mpg or Wmv depending what I want to do with it… basically for simplicity. Divx tends to annoy newbie video watchers anyway because it isn’t immediately obvious that the extra codec is needed.
N e way can any of the brits on here help me out with this:
Would be much appreciated. I need something sorted in the next few days.
Tim
I can use Movie Maker on XP, but I can-t do it with Divx. How do you compress with Divx?
I’m not a fan of Windows Media formats because it means you have to use WMP. Normally this is fine, but there are occasions when I’d like to take a screenshot, or play it on a computer that doesn’t have WMP. You can’t edit it either, which is sometimes useful to make a clip smaller, make it brighter or somesuch gubbins.
Phil
I find I can get muuuch better compression on divx than I can on wmv…and much better qaulity.
Face it, Micro$oft, no matter how hard they try, will never match up…wmv will never equal divx, wma will NEVER equal mp3…
theres my anti msoft rant for the day…
WMA equals and surpasses mp3, but not Ogg Vorbis. Hurrah!
Good effort, though… 
Phil
That really gets to me. And I like to view all my videos in VirtualDub to move backwards and forwards frame by frame ever now and then.
Andrew
My preference would be for DivX5. It does a good job and is available for PC, Mac, and Linux.
You could also make a second lower quality version of the video available in MPEG-I (Video CD file format) for those people who cannot or will not install the DivX codec. MPEG-I is a very universal format and most any system should be able to play it. Quality and compression are not as good as DivX 5, but at least people will be able to play it without downloading and installing a special codec.
Actually WMV9 holds its own with the other codecs. Here’s a codec review of several codecs including WMV9.
well DivX it is!
its done now… and as soon as the gallery is working again, it shall be up! 
Joe,