Encoding Raw MPEG?

[ArtWilliams]

Originally Posted by Ramster

So I have some raw MPEG videos and want to encode them. I've done MPG and I've done WMV. MPG seems to give a better ratio for the video but the file sizes are huge still. When I do WMV I get a black top and bottom for some reason.

What do others do for encoding? Settings? WMV or MPG? File size for a say 10 minutes of video? I have 1.7 gigs roughly.

My CMS will convert whatever I upload to FLV, WMV and MPG and anything else so members have several options to view or download the videos so I'm not so concerned about that part.

I don't do much of this stuff but when I do I use Avidemux. It seems to be a pretty powerful tool. For really simple stuff I use WinFF. Both programs are open source and free. They are available for Windows and Linux with Avidemux having a Mac version too. I use Avidemux to cut out 30 second clips for freesites and save them to the format I need. Both are based on ffmpeg.