Video Size/Quality/Compression Need some help

[mrmikeman]

Right now I got a 12 minute 26 second video,
HD
Frame width 128-
Frame height 720
Frame rate 23 fps
Data rate 4840
Total bitrate 5032

Audio
192kbps
Channles 2(stero)
Audio Sample Rate 48khz

this thing is 450 megabytes.
Now i understand that using different compression methods such as xVid would shrink this file size, and maintain high quality.

my problem is compatibility with peoples computer happening to not have the right codec..

What are my options, how do i maintain quality, shrink file size and not have to hear people crying about the video not playing because they cant get with the program..

Thanks

[JimmyStephans]

I see nobody seems to have answered... truth is there is not one perfect / correct answer.

That file sizes must mean you have pretty RAW data, like directly from camcorder. You'll need to convert that to another format. How you do the conversion depends on what raw file format you have, and what software you have on your computer, and what format you want to end up with.

The most popular for fans is Windows Media Video (.wmv) because its installed on so many computers.

Next would be Quicktime, made by Apple, but free players available from Apple and others for Windows systems.

Then -- you have to make decisions while encoding it. That Bit rate setting is sort of like a compressions setting. 4840 would roughly be 4.8 megabytes per second, and is good. A lower number, say 2000, would be a smaller file size and lower quality.

Here we use WMV and Quicktime, and encode both at 5000.

The samples over at sites like Twisty's and DigitalDesires and often a bit lower, such as 3600 bit rate.