@Todd: I could have probably helped you to a Degree… I'm not 100% up to par myself with some of this stuff, But I've been building computers, upgrading, teaching a little bit.
So i could've give you a few pointers. i've just rescently bought me a Sony Handycam that has a 60Gig hard Drive in it, it takes up to 14 Hours of High Quality "HQ" Video which is Basically DVD Quality, and it takes up to 41 hours of SP Video, which is the Standard for VCR's, SP is High Quality for Tapes.
Anyway, you Dock it to the computer threw USB, Then you Transfer the Videos from the Hard drive of my Camera, Then you Add them into your Video Editing Software, You add all of your effects, Trims, Splicing, Deleteing of Scenes etc, Then you can Do 1 of 2 Things, You can Produce to Streaming Video for the Internet, Youtube etc, or you can Convert it to DVD with chapters and the likes.
When you use it for Streaming. you have 3 Video Format Options available to Choose from. As i specified earlier in my Response… You have
Windows Media Video
RealPlayer
Quicktime
Under Windows Media Video Conversion or Production. You have 39 other options to convert your Video to, From Windows Media Video 9 HD Standard and High Quality to Windows Media Video 9 HD for Zune Standard and High Quality All the way to Windows Media Video 8 for Color Pocket PC's (225kbps) and (150kbps) and formatting for Cable, ISDN, Broadband and even Dial up, So quality has a Different Aspect and all with Medias Video, I may try my Hand at Converting one of my Smaller Videos in each format and give it a try, but i will probably continue to use medium Quality for Quicktime so I can use it on iTune.
RealPlayer, I've not tried any options or conversions with this format cause I don't care much for it, so I'm not knowledgable with this one.
And we have Quicktime Video, This has 3 Qualities… Low, Medium and High Quality. Low Quality will give you a Really Small video Viewing. Quility Stinks, Really Pixelated… Medium Quality, A bigger window for viewing then the low Quality, a Little better Quality Video also not as Pixelated as the low Quality but does have some… Then you have high Quality, Which virtually has no Pixelation, Good Quality, but bigger fiile size…
one of the Main reason some of the File Sizes are so big is because of Compression issues… And this is why some of your Flash videos are so small, cause they compress the video, the server uncompressed is (Buffers) as you see that little Shadow bar as you are watching the video like blip.tv? The Video Buffers, cause it has to uncompress it's self for stedy viewing and if it skips while you watching, it's not buffering that quickly.
Then you get the Youtube effect… Which is whre it plays for a sec or two, then it stops, has to buffer a little more, then you can watch another sec or two, this is cause the videos are compressed, That's how you orbain Smaller video Sizes, BUT, Smaller video sizes Don't always mean better, That's where the Windows media Video Multi Format comes in, cause they gear your Streaming Video to match the Bandwidth to your Viewers. Say you do a Report and you have 10 Viewers that are on Dialup, has problems watchintg cable or broadband videos, because of the Streaming compression etc.
So you Cut a video just for them and convert it into dialup (57kbps) this makes it easier and skip free, may obtain the same size, but gives them a better viewing experience cause it won't skip or anything.
I figured since I converted to this Video format, I wanted to cut some time on uploading and editing etc, that I would just link my Video from Blip.tv as you have done, which is also what I have done, I may have to experiement also on which gives me a Good quality Video by converting and will have to Sacrifice the Uploading time by uploading Large Files in the evening time when it's bed time.
Anyway, I think I Practically Wrote a Book here, I will compile a Small video and post it so you can check out the Available options and how i convert my Videos and mess around with them, and then produce them and let you see the Size Differents… I also added you to my Buddies..
This will be convient for me to stay in touch with you and your work, I'm impressed with it and I like your Videos also, I just watched a few of them… Well actually just the last one on the Card Scraper, Gonna check the others out thou soon!
Handi