Need help converting video formats

[Craig White]

On Tue, 2008-11-04 at 22:17 -0700, Mark Phillips wrote:
> I have a video that I need to put on a web site. The video file is
> 4min 25 seconds long, NTSC, 23.976 fps, 7978 frames 740X480. This
> translates to 134.4 MB as a .vob file and 83.4MB as a .mpg file. I
> would like to find a way to reduce the size of the video file - what
> other formats should I use? What Linux tools will help me convert the
> movie?
> 
> I would prefer to use the website's embedded video player, which
> supports these formats:
> * Quicktime (MOV, MP4), 
> * Windows Media (WMV, AVI, WMA, ASF), 
> * RealMedia (RAM)
> * Flash (FLV, SWF)
> 
> If these format do not result in a smaller file than MPG at 83.4 MB,
> what other format should I use and what Linux tool will help me
> convert the file.
> 
> Thanks!
----
mencoder which is a tool that is part of the mplayer package

from the mencoder man page...

EXAMPLES OF MENCODER USAGE
       Encode DVD title #2, only selected chapters:
       mencoder dvd://2 -chapter 10-15 -o title2.avi -oac copy -ovc lavc
-lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4

       Encode DVD title #2, resizing to 640x480:
       mencoder dvd://2 -vf scale=640:480 -o title2.avi -oac copy -ovc
lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4

       Encode DVD title #2, resizing to 512xHHH (keep aspect ratio):
       mencoder dvd://2 -vf scale -zoom -xy 512 -o title2.avi -oac copy
-ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4

       The same, but with bitrate set to 1800kbit and optimized
macroblocks:
       mencoder dvd://2 -o title2.avi -oac copy -ovc lavc -lavcopts
vcodec=mpeg4:mbd=1:vbitrate=1800

       The same, but with MJPEG compression:
       mencoder dvd://2 -o title2.avi -oac copy -ovc lavc -lavcopts
vcodec=mjpeg:mbd=1:vbitrate=1800

       Encode all *.jpg files in the current directory:
       mencoder "mf://*.jpg" -mf fps=25 -o output.avi -ovc lavc
-lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4

       Encode from a tuner (specify a format with -vf format):
       mencoder -tv driver=v4l:width=640:height=480 tv:// -o tv.avi -ovc
raw

       Encode from a pipe:
       rar p test-SVCD.rar | mencoder -ovc lavc -lavcopts
vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=800 -ofps 24 -

Craig