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Thread ID: 44301 2004-04-15 00:54:00 emailing mpg files karent (5222) Press F1
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229336 2004-04-15 00:54:00 Hi. I have some really cute mpgs of my 2 year-old daughter doing things 2 year-olds do. One of them is so cute I would like to email it to some rellies overseas. Problem is, although the clip is only about 90 secs in length, the file is 30 MB. Can such a file be compressed into a mailable size? Would it be best to set up a web page? Thanks. karent (5222)
229337 2004-04-15 01:00:00 Mpeg format is already compressed, so further compresion (using ZIP or similar) will not work.

Re-encoding the stream at a very low resolution will make it mailable but of poor quality. A 90 second clip will still be a few MB, and people on dial-up may not be impressed.

Most "free" web hosts have only a 10 MB maximum space, so you may need to use a paid host to get 30 MB.
godfather (25)
229338 2004-04-15 01:08:00 > Hi. I have some really cute mpgs of my 2 year-old
> daughter doing things 2 year-olds do. One of them is
> so cute I would like to email it to some rellies
> overseas. Problem is, although the clip is only about
> 90 secs in length, the file is 30 MB. Can such a file
> be compressed into a mailable size? Would it be best
> to set up a web page? Thanks.

I'd say setting up a web page and letting your rellies download the mpg off the net would be a good way to do it. That way you won't need to alter the bitrate/resolution of the mpg file.

If you don't have a webpage or one that is less then 30MB storage then try this free web hosting (http://members4.freewebs.com/) site. Comes with a 50MB storage. Enough room for your mpg.
aNtzy (4070)
229339 2004-04-15 01:17:00 I wonder if you could use Virtual Dub or something like that to chop the file into three or four smaller files, upload them to a website and let your rellies download them at their leisure? They might even be able to join the files back together again if they were handy enough. :-)

I have edited some of my .avi files in this way but I am not sure about .mpg files.

Where's Metla? He's good at this sort of thing. :p :D
Susan B (19)
229340 2004-04-15 01:25:00 Thanks for your replies. It looks like I'll have to snailmail them a S/VCD or a DVD. Shame. I might still set up a web page for photos though. Pardon my paranoia but are such web pages secure? Not that I imagine loading anything secret or offensive. It's just that I don't like the idea of any old tom, dick or whatever accessing it. karent (5222)
229341 2004-04-15 01:31:00 Some webpage hosting sites can allow you to set a password to prevent unauthorised access, otherwise your files are available to all and sundry. Susan B (19)
229342 2004-04-15 01:52:00 karent

Are you able to resave the files with a different name and apply a different method of compression? For example my camera saves the files as .avi files. Before I save them I can choose manual compression which then gives me alternative ways of compressing. I usually choose Cinepak Codec by Radius. However, if I want to email them I will choose MPEG4 Video High Speed Compression. This method sometimes results in the receiver not being able to view the files. If this is the case Microsoft Video 1 compression works well.

Oxie (Lyn)
Oxie (1318)
229343 2004-04-15 02:53:00 Hi Oxie. The original aim was to save my movies in a format that I could then save to DVD so they could be played on a PC or a DVD player, hence MPG2. I used ULead VideoStudio 7 to download the files from camera to PC. That worked fine, although it took about 3 hours to transfer 15 minutes of film(!!) I know absolutely nothing about how the software works - I just followed my nose and tried a few things to see what happened. How do you save as .avi? Is that a Windows format? karent (5222)
229344 2004-04-15 03:06:00 I suggest you have a look at the software you are using, as it will probably offer different compression methods .

AVI (Audio Video Interleave) format was developed by Microsoft . It is a common format on PC's, and comes with the Windows operating system .

Oxie (Lyn)
Oxie (1318)
229345 2004-04-15 03:14:00 It doesn't really matter what format your movies are in, Karen, 15 minutes is going to be enormous . :-( That's how it is . Remember what a movie is: 30 (or so) pictures ("frames") for every second . If you camera connects to the computer with a USB cable, you should see it as a "disk" in My Computer, and you will be able to copy files directly . That might be faster than a clever programme . (Almost anything is quicker than clever programmes ;-)) .

No-one's going to like getting a 30 MB email . A lot of free services make 5 MB available for each user .

If you could get storage for a web site it would probably need to be a
paid hosting service, which ought to allow passwording of pages . Though "what 2 year olds do" isn't likely to be much of a problem . There's more interest in what 20 year olds do (or 19 . . . Paris Hilton . . . :O) .
Graham L (2)
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