We've seen some great feedback regarding laptops and such, and I have completely frustrated myself trying to figure this out, so if you have any experience at all with video editing, please see if you can help me.

I have taken A LOT of M-JPEG video on my Canon camera and would love to post it to youtube or anywhere else, really. The problem is--the files are HUGE. Three minutes=100MB! It doesn't matter if I save them as an AVI or MOV, they're still massive. I sense that I'm going to have to break down and actually BUY SOFTWARE (I can barely even type it) but I would like to know how best to compress this video to a managable size. When I upload to youtube, the quality is horrible. I've seen plenty of acceptable quality youtube videos that are 10 minutes long and I'm sure they didn't start with a 500MB file.

To be clear, while youtube is one option--I really just need to know how best to make a smaller finished product. I know that I can reduce the screen size and resolution--but those really aren't options since I'm shooting wide and a smaller screen will make the video useless. Any ideas at all will be greatly appreciated.

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Michael

CLEP - ISCA 68, Sociology 72, Psych 73, A&I Lit 61, HG&D 65, Ed Psych 70, Marketing 72, Management 69, Macroeconomics 63, Microeconomics 67
DSST - Intro to Comp 66, MIS 61, Supervision 67, Counseling 58 - no study!, Personal Finance 67, Statistics 60, Criminal Justice 57, Ethics 58, Finance 63 (All A's at EC)
COC - 2007 (Community College) - Acctg I&II 10c, Work/Study 4c, Intro to Research (Info Lit req) 1c, Society and Rock & Roll 3c, Fund of Music 3c, Guitar I & II 4c, Bass Guitar I 2c
ECE - Ethics (A), HRM (B), Organizational Behavior (B) | CSU - Operations Mgmt. (A) | TECEP - Business Policy 80 (CR)

My Excelsior Degree Journey

Bachelor of Science in General Business, cum laude
Excelsior College
.