Render compression in Max help

Sett

I have a 181 frame spin around animation that I am rendering in Max5 (800x350). I'm tying different compression/types and getting mixed results.

.avi-
7.5Mb but very poor quality. 7.5 seems like alot too.

.mov-
50Mb (ouch!) but the quality is excelent.

-I've seen other renders around 2~3M with good quality, how is that done?
-How can I lengthen the time with out adding more frames?
-Any good Free codecs out there?

FatAssasin

Just saying .avi or .mov doesn't tell us what codec you're using. Quicktime/Animation is a lot bigger that Quicktime/Soreson.

Here are my suggestions:
For Quicktime files, use Sorenson 3 at medium or high quality. Down side: bigger than Divx files, but anyone who has quicktime installed can view it. Plus, you can use Quicktime Pro too easily create streaming videos that start as soon as the viewer loads the web page (almost).

For AVI files, use the newest Divx codec at about 2000 kps bitrate. Super small files with good quality. Downside: the viewer has to manually install the Divx codec; and no streaming, so people have to download the whole movie before watching. But most graphics people have Divx installed these days. XVid may be even better, but fewer people have it installed.

Personally, I use Quicktime/Sorenson 3 for movies on my site. I figure the streaming capability makes up for the larger file sizing. Here's an example of some streaming Quicktime movies: http://jhaywood.com/FX.htm

But for movies I'm going to keep on my hard drive, I'll use Divx.

Sett

Thanks again, I settled on Sorenson 3 at high.

12M, but it has the detail I want.

I find that the compression codecs tend to darken eveything.