Reducing video size and conversion

[iKwak]

I started to transfer most of my videos (8mm/Hi8) to pc using firewire and Windows Movie Maker that came with Win XP Pro.

The setting is Others -> Video for Broadband NTSC (768 kbps). I've tried High Quality and 384 kbps but the quality wasn't that great.
I want to keep the 768 kbps setting but a 22:30 second video equals to 109 MB and 48:25 second video clip equals 242MB!!

The video clips are .WMV format.

What are the options (any options will do )that will maintain equal video quality but reduce MB size?
I have ULead Videostudio 5.0 and my friend has Adobe Premier 6.0 if those programs are better for such project.

[jayant]

how about using divx encoder (http://www.divx.com/divx/). virtualdub (http://www.virtualdub.org) also encoded in divx, i think

[The Chancer]

I had the same problem, and using divx / xvid will reduce the image size.

There is some reduction in the quality, with parts the same colour losing definition, but it is getting better with the DivX 5 codec. If you know how long the video lasts for as well, you can use the bitcalucator by Terry Savon (I think - google'll find it - just search for bitcalc.exe) to calculate the number of kb/second - and this can vary dependant on the audio quality as well - although 128kbps isn't too bad for it - not really noticeable unless you are using it through a decent stereo.

Up to 800Mb CD's (take off a bit if you want to make it into a VCD - Nero isn't half bad at that) also will help in keeping the quality high.

The other solution is worth about £200 and is called a DVD Writer....