Compression of .mov files

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I would like to incorporate some movie files into my site with .mov extension but they take up to much web space.
Are there any programs which l could use to compress these files so they are as small as possible so l can include them in my site?

Any help would be appreciated.

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Run a search on ‘zip’ – you may have to sort out some of the irrelevant results, but it should list most of the threads on compression software such as Winzip.

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Done a search but nothing found, any other suggestions?

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To search, click on the Search button in the Lounge menu.
To enter a search term, click in the ‘Search for’ box, then type one or more words.
If necessary, specify the other options, then click Submit.
See screenshot below.

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Yep – try the search again. Just the word
zip
no quotes, no spaces – just like the attached.

(I’m getting at least three pages of 99 posts each…)

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I have done this but no luck in finding the appropriate software, any other suggestions?

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When searching for ZIP as instructed, I found within the first 100 posts:
post 574,509, containing a link to some file compression software
post 568,454, containing a link to Pando, which lets you email (and presumably, upload to a web page) files of any size
post 528,533, containing a link to FloppyOffice, which includes a zip utility
post 514,792, with a link to free compression utilities
post 514,335, containing a link to the latest beta version of WinZip

Now when you say that none of those are appropriate – please could you explain why? You asked for compression software, we pointed you towards compression software…

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> any other suggestions?

Don’t put them on your website…otherwise you certainly won’t get any visitors coming to it. Put in links to the file and give a description of what they are going to see and the size of the file is normally the correct netiquette.

I have seen some sites have thumbnails of the movie….but they are very passe these days IMHO

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The .mov extension implies a movie made for the QuickTime player. There are many possible codecs that can be used to compress such movies, and you might need to recode the file using a different one. Do you have any video editing software?

If file size is critical, you could impose on people to download a new player to take advantage of proprietary compression technologies like Bink and Smacker. See: http://www.radgametools.com/bnkmain.htm%5B/url%5D. Finally, you could consider other video hosting services, maybe Google’s?

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Another possible workaround is to break the movie into chunks, with consecutively numbered filenames (chunk01.mov, chunk02.mov, etc.). Your visitors can then download the lot, and set them to run as a single playlist. Obviously this is more cumbersome for your visitors (and for you) but it does overcome the file size issue.

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Thats great thanks for that, the problem still lies with the amount of web space l have. As l have a .mov file of 20meg when l only have 10meg web space!
I am considering using your idea of other hosting services but the video is personal and l only want certain people to view it, can it made viewable by using a password or some other means?

Do you know of any web sites which l could look at to see if they have such features , i.e. the address of the google site you mentioned, that would be much appreciated.

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Password protection and security is another sticky issue when it comes to server/client side stuff. There are javascripts around that offer password protection, but these are usually easy to hack. The only secure way of securing a section of a website is with server-side access. Having said that, most zip software (if not all zip software) lets you password protect the zip file, so you may be able to kill two birds with one stone.

A trick I often use is to choose a URL that no casual visitor would guess, and direct your select band of people to it with an email.

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Thanks for that, the problem still remains as to finding the software to be able to compress the software up enough so that it can be ftp’d across to my web space, L don’t think pkzip will do this and l need an alternativem source of compression software,any ideas?

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Most video formats are already compressed, so compression software doesn’t help much, however good it is. The same goes for .jpg pictures and .mp3 music files.

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Do you any other suggesions then as to how l could resolve the problem?

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Find a provider who offers more web space?

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Yes, but it will cost a lot of money, l will think l will have to save up the money so l can afford to do this, as it appears to be the only solution.

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In post 577,160 I pointed you to post 568,454 which mentions Pando. Pando lets you send emails with attachments of any size, up to 1GB. Since the movie is for a select band of friends, rather than public consumption, surely emailing it is a better option than putting it on the web, and Pando lets you do just that without any worries about email attachment file size limits. Have you tried it? Have you even looked at it?

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I will look at this as it seems the most suitable option, l don’t whether this is a file compression utility in the program but l will have a look to see if there is. As friends want be to happyt receiving a file 45 Meg in size!

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I’m not sure exactly how it works, but my guess is that it stores the file on a server and what you’re actually sending contains a secure link to the file rather than the file itself.

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That could be exactly what l am looking , many thanks indeed.

I will try it with a large file and try it out.

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…but it will cost a lot of money…

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[/indent]There are MANY web hosts around the world who provide more space, password protection capabilities and maybe even greater bandwidth than you’re currently getting and the prices of some are VERY affordable. Doing a “Whois” on your web to see who your provider is, it looks to me like you could do better with not a sizeable increase in annual cost. Keep in mind that I say all this in light of the fact that you’re hosting web pages for OTHERS to enjoy and, while not a business per se, you and your group(s) would seem to be more than just a personal web page for family pictures (like mine). I can’t help but think that you’d be well served to do a little shopping.

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Thanks for you advice and help, it is much appreciated.

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Just to add that I have a similar problem at the moment – I have a .mov file of that I’m trying to send to ‘s and . The original file was about 16MB, and when zipped it was about 15MB – so getting a 20MB file into a 10MB space might be tricky even with the best compression software in the world!

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> The original file was about 16MB, and when zipped it was about 15MB…

Yes, it’s true, lossless compression can’t do much with video. But if you use a tool that converts to Windows Media (WMV), you probably can squeeze the file significantly, especially if it was captured on a digital camera using the old Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) codec. If it already uses the more modern MPEG-4, maybe not. This will involve some compromise in image quality; you might have to convert/render a few times to get the right trade-off.

My camera came with an old version of Ulead Video Studio “special edition,” which lets you add titles and can output to a wide variety of formats. There probably are a wide variety of other good tools out there if you are not limited to QuickTime output.

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