Best codec for downloading

[Optimus Prime]

Ok whats the best codec for putting a movie on the web. I captured a 20min file from my analog video8 handycam using adstech instant dvd. I captured a 3mbps. The file size 450,000KB. I want to get it to a more reasonable size. I tried using divx 5.11 to decrease the file size but it looked horrible. (Single pass, 300kbps bitrate,) I tried standard, slow, slowest. They were all choppy and blocky. So whats the best codec/settings for what I want to do? Oh and the video size is 360*240. I want to get the file size as low as possible with mininal quality lose.

[jeremymacmull]

What kinda of quality is the source

is it a really amateurish handycam movie cos if yes then for nearly all codecs ull have to use some filters to clean things up so it compresses more (even if it is not amateurish ull probably need filters to get the compressibility of the clip up to ensure half decent quality)

what settings did u use on the divx version ??

ud be better off posting this in the video capture forum ull get a lot more help there

hope this helps

JEREMY

[bb]

Originally posted by Optimus Prime
Ok whats the best codec for putting a movie on the web. I captured a 20min file from my analog video8 handycam using adstech instant dvd. I captured a 3mbps. The file size 450,000KB. I want to get it to a more reasonable size. I tried using divx 5.11 to decrease the file size but it looked horrible. (Single pass, 300kbps bitrate,) I tried standard, slow, slowest. They were all choppy and blocky. So whats the best codec/settings for what I want to do? Oh and the video size is 360*240. I want to get the file size as low as possible with mininal quality lose.
I assume you captured to MPEG-2 in the first place, which is not the best choice. You should follow a completely different path:
1. Capture to Huffyuv or MJPEG (e.g. using VirtualDub or VirtualVCR) at full resolution. DV is a good capture format, too, but restricts your capture resolution to 720x576 (PAL) / 720x480 (NTSC).
2. Crop the flickering at the borders, resize to your target resolution, and apply a noise filter (this is essential!). This can be done in VirtualDub or - better and faster - in AviSynth. Don't be scared to learn AviSynth: it's not as difficult as it seems to be, and it's definitely worth the effort.
3. Encode to your target format. DivX is a good choice; for best quality for the filesize you should perform at least two passes. There are a bunch of other settings that affect quality, though. And the 300 kbps you desire is not much, thus you should optimize where it's possible.

I strongly suggest to read the "TV capture guide", which covers most of the problems you'll encounter: http://www.doom9.org/capture/start.html

bb