OT: making AVI clips

[davip]

I know this is way off-topic, but I figure someone here will know the answer. I'm trying to convert some QT movies to AVI format so that Windows users who don't have Quicktime player can view them. I have Quicktime Pro, but when I use it to export to AVI, the files become huge. For example, a self-contained MOV file that was 6mB became a 35mB AVI. Is there a better way to do this?

[N-G-NEER]

It's all a matter of which compressor you use. In quicktime pro there is a list. There is also Discreet cleaner or canopus procoder just to name a few. ultimately you must decide how much quality you are willing to give up in exchange for file size, and that's a personal choice.

[davip]

Sorry, I guess I didn't provide enough information. I understand that different compressors and compression settings will yield different size files. My frustration is that when exporting to AVI, the compression options in Quicktime Pro are far fewer than when exporting to MOV.

In the case of my test movie, I'm able to get a 6mb MOV file that looks and sounds pretty good, using H.263 compression for the video track and Qdesign compression for the audio track. The smallest AVI I can export with acceptable quality is 18mb, using Cinepak compression (lowest quality, millions of colors) for the video track and u-law compression for the audio track.

Is the lack of compressor choices a limitation of AVI or of Qucktime Pro? I'd like to avoid spending $500 for Cleaner, as I don't have call to do this very often, and I'm using a Mac, so I can't run the Canopus encoder. Do I have any other options.

Finally, does anyone know of a forum where it would be more appropriate to post this query?

[jimlongo]

avi is just a container format. I suspect you have discovered the answer about available codecs in QTPro for AVI files yourself. But if you want more info on this you could try the quicktime-talk list at
http://lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/quicktime-talk

[vancouver8]

Try the creativecow.com forums