Okey I make tutorial videos where I use Camtasia to capture my screen. Usually I will capture using default settings, then use Xvideo codec to compress it. Works pretty well. My question is: Can I get it lower? What are the best codecs out there for low file size? Also, does it matter what type of settings I use to capture the screen? Lastly, does it matter if my video is .avi or .flv? I notice youtube sites always have flv videos (lower size maybe?) Thanks guys.
If you want to reach the largest audience, you should encode to FLV and embed a Flash player to play it. Make sure you use encoding software that supports 2-pass VBR and has the On2 VP6 codec (Sorenson Squeeze, Compressor, Flash Video Encoder Pro). To embed in your site for playback, you can get a free open source SWF player that is fully skinnable at http://www.flowplayer.org There is not too much content yet, but I have few tips already at my new site http://webvideotechniques.com and I will be adding a lot more stuff. Btw, as someone new to web video, what kinds of other topics and questions do you have? I really want to provide content and info that will be helpful for new users as well.