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I have a large 3G .mov file that I need to post online or attach in an email (hopefully the final output will be less then 100mb). What is the best way for me to do this, quickly and for free?

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5 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

Handbrake is free and will let you select a target size for the output.

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I guess I should have mentioned that I am using a netbook...my screen resolution is too small, apparently! – Kato Oct 21 '09 at 0:12
Is there a program similar to handbrake without minimum requirements for screen res? – Kato Oct 21 '09 at 0:36
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Format Factory is my favorite, for its simplicity and successful converting rate :) http://www.formatoz.com/

Format Factory is a multifunctional media converter.

Provides functions below:

  • All to MP4/3GP/MPG/AVI/WMV/FLV/SWF.
    • All to MP3/WMA/AMR/OGG/AAC/WAV.
    • All to JPG/BMP/PNG/TIF/ICO/GIF/TGA.
    • Rip DVD to video file , Rip Music CD to audio file.
    • MP4 files support iPod/iPhone/PSP/BlackBerry format.
    • Supports RMVB,Watermark, AV Mux.

Format Factory's Feature:

  1. support converting all popular video,audio,picture formats to others.
  2. Repair damaged video and audio file.
  3. Reducing Multimedia file size.
  4. Support iphone,ipod multimedia file formats.
  5. Picture converting supports Zoom,Rotate/Flip,tags.
  6. DVD Ripper.
  7. Supports 60 languages
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Thanks for the tips...unfortunately it seems that the Apple Pro Res codec used initially is causing the problem...any advice on that? – Kato Oct 21 '09 at 2:03
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On *nix and mac osx, you can try Mencoder - the encoder that uses the same code base as mplayer. There's a (brief) doc on how to rescale movies here.

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FFMPEG!

ffmpeg -i 3G_file.mov -vcodec copy out.mpg

you can limit file output size with the -fs switch. I'd suggest lowering resolution first as it will reduce quality significantly otherwise. You can use -r to change the FPS, and -s to change the size.

Documentation here.

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Thanks for the tips everyone! Had to go with a very lame solution instead... – Kato Oct 21 '09 at 7:06
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Netbook with windows?

Try Super Video Converter (go to the end of the provided link and click on "Download SUPER © setup file") or MediaCoder. I would suggest you to install both.

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Yes, XP. The trouble has passed, but would this have worked to convert the .mov file using the apple pro res 422 HQ codec? – Kato Nov 19 '09 at 3:58
I can't assure you it's going to work with this codec... at least the developers from SUPER and MediaCoder always update their softwares to the codec's latest versions. That's why I said you to try to use both software and see which one works. They are all free. – GmonC Nov 19 '09 at 15:46

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