Conversion Question

[Nicholstv]

I'm using MPEG STREAMCLIP to convert my video files and have 2 questions...

Question #1: the average file size for an MPEG STREAMCLIP converted 2 hour movie is 3 - 4 gigs. This seems like a lot since the average size of the movies I download from apple are less than a gig. Is there anything I can do to lower the file size but save the quality of picture???

Question #2: Is there any reason for me to convert and save the movie files as 1080i HD if the source is a Standard Definition source??

Any help is appreciated... thanks!

[baseballboy828]

1) What format are you converting to? Convert to MPEG4 but use H.264. This will take the longest, but will offer a greatly reduced file size with almost no quality loss. If you are converting to a .mov or a regular .mp4, it may give you huge file sizes.

2) No. Don't up-sample the video. That will make it look terrible. Make sure you convert to the same resolution the source footage is (or smaller).