Digital Camera + Youtube= disaster.

[Becky]

For my ASL classes, they told me "oh just use a webcam for your videos."
I tried signing in front of that webcam. YOU CAN'T SEE A THING, It's just a sting of blurs. So,I use my digital camera. Perfect pictures, utter clarity.

The downside? THE FILES ARE FRIGGIN' HUGE OMGoober.
So, a five minute video takes me 2-4 hours to upload to youtube on a good day. Yesterday, it took about 6. I am on the cheapo "slow" broadband, but six hours? The heck was that? AOL would be faster these days!

x.x

I attempted to compress the file, but lets face it, Becky trying to work Windows Movie Maker is like a British person driving in the US who's never heard we drive on the opposite side of the road. It ends badly.

The picture just ended up being rectangular instead of square. That's all compressing did, it literally compressed the size of the video width wise. Good show, WMM, good show.



So, does anyone have a tutorial, something preferably typed up that I can just print off and play around with offline, for compressing files? Or a file compressing website? I do want them much smaller, and I'd like to keep SOME quality, if my signs aren't readable, it's pointless.

[ßli乙乙y]

Here are some questions I want to ask you:

Are you using Windows XP? Vista? 7? 8?

What do you mean by huge?

Can you give me pixel width and height?

How long is it?

What's your upload speed?
--If you can go here and select "begin test", it'll be helpful.

[Becky]

Vista. Laptop. i'm about 15 feet from the router at any given moment.
Um...it's 433 MB (454,623,178 bytes).
5 minutes long, roughly. Most of them are about that long.
I don't know the pixel amount. My camera is like 3 megapixels... I think.
My upload speed? too slow? I have no idea how to even CHECK that. But... it takes anywhere from 35-40 mins to upload one minute of video, if that helps.



There we be. ROFTLOL, I failed.

[ßli乙乙y]

Haha. Well, to be frank, 433 MB is pretty low nowadays. What I meant was is it 720x480? 320x480? I think you can check by opening up Windows Explorer (what opens up when you double click on a folder to view its content) and highlighting the file.

The way I see it, your options are to lower the frame size or lower the bitrate. In other words, make the video smaller (like to 320x240) or make it cruddier or both.

Before I continue, is there a way you can go on campus and upload it?

[Becky]

Yes, or at the library. But..should something be due on a stupid Gov't holiday again, I'd like to be successful uploading from home.
It's 640x480 right now. how would I go about making this smaller?

I also like to do youtube stuff that is NOT class related, and i'd rather not spend all day online, uploading something that was for kicks and giggles.

[ßli乙乙y]

Oh, one more question, what file type is it? I want to try and reproduce a file that is similar to yours.

[Becky]

It's a .avi.

[ßli乙乙y]

I think I could help you, but there's always a crucial question I forget to ask. =P What version of Windows Movie Maker are you using? You can tell by looking at the top where it says File, Edit, View, ..., Help.



Select "Help"

Then "About..."

I'm looking for "...Movie Maker Version......"

[Becky]

Version 6.0.6002.18273

[ßli乙乙y]

Did I find the right one?

[Becky]

That looks about right.

[ßli乙乙y]

i.imgur.com/KEP0Kgh.png





I recommend using "Windows Media DVD Quality" It brought my 5 minute video with 400MB down to what you see there, about 113 MB, and it still looks alright. Quality was reduced by a little, and the frame rate dropped slightly, but it still looks alright. That's my recommendation.



So, just click "This computer", which is located under "Publish to" on the left.

Then, type in your preferred file name and pick a location you want to save.

Click the dot that says "more settings" to unlock the drop down menu.

Select "Windows Media DVD Quality"

Then, select "Publish"





If you're still not satisfied by the results, we'll see if we can try something else. I hope this helps.

[Becky]

I will have to play with it! thanks man!

[ßli乙乙y]

What do you mean? It seemed pretty straightforward to me.

Plus, Windows Movie Maker does not give you a lot of options like others do.

[Becky]

play with it as it actually do it, and make a video and what not. Your directions ARE straight forward... I just need the time to go through the process. I learn by doing. Usually several items. XD

I will alert you to my results!