Compressing video files from the Canon 5D MKII

[Don Price]

Been shooting stills for 30 years but this video is crazy... First it plays find on the HDTV but the files are very large 300-400MB for a minute run. I'm trying to find the compression that will let me save the quality and get these down to some reasonable size.
You Video guys?... what is your recommend way to compress, or is this as good as it gets? (PC not Mac).
I see very little use in video (output HD1080 x 1900) if the only way to play it is on you HDTV from the camera.. I need to erase the card and move on, any help on this stuff.. mp4 or H264 or I have tried different one but making the file small enough for any gain I have to set quality to med or lower??
Don

[Chris Sanderson]

Check out MPEG StreamClip. Mac or Windows.

Copy your video files off the card and then open in MPEG StreamClip and batch process them to a format - there are lots of choices - that is more practical for your use.

Also do not neglect the available in camera SD format 720 x 480 which is far more manageable.

[Don Price]

Tnx Chrissand, I will try that
don

Check out MPEG StreamClip. Mac or Windows.

Copy your video files off the card and then open in MPEG StreamClip and batch process them to a format - there are lots of choices - that is more practical for your use.

Also do not neglect the available in camera SD format 720 x 480 which is far more manageable.

[Yannis Doukakis]

I have used successfully the software "Handbrake" which is open-source(free). It can shrink the video even for phones. BUT do not expect speed...

Converting a video, using a Notebook with Dual core processor, T9400 / 2.53 GHz - 4GB RAM, Vista 64-bit, peaked at 17 fps. Which means that an 1 hour video needs something less than 2 hours to be converted down to PAL sizes.

I tried also the much much faster Badaboom, which works and needs a latest-version GeForce card and converts at up to 100fps... but sometimes it loses sync between sound and video. It costs less than 30 dollars. Sound ends earlier than the video... I hope that they will fix this in a patch...

Since sound of 5D Mark II is anyway terrible, you can use this software for fast conversion of image-only video.

[Morgan_Moore]

Check out MPEG StreamClip. Mac or Windows.

Copy your video files off the card and then open in MPEG StreamClip and batch process them to a format - there are lots of choices - that is more practical for your use.

If you are consider retiming your footage - to a filmic 24 FPS or a PAL happy 25 FPS I have found that doing this with streamclip is a poor solution

I convert my files to AIC (apple intermedia codec) in stream clip

then edit at 30FPS (in FCP) and shoul I require retime my edited footage..

S