S5 IS...need help compressing video

[jnick]

Lately I've been recording a lot of video with our S5. However, the files are rather large so when I upload to youtube it compresses it to hell due to the file size, not to mention, it takes a LONG time.

In the past, with the S3 IS, I used to convert the video to DivX, bringing a 700MB video down to about 70MB. The quality was still good and uploading was snappy. However, I can't seem to get compression to work with movies from the S5. I keep getting errors that the format isn't supported.

I'm willing to convert using either DivX or h.264. I've tried using virtualdub, handbrake, and SUPER.

Any help on how I can accomplish this? The output container from the camera is .AVI...

Thanks!

[Old man Don]

I will post a new post with this as subject line: "Radtools video conversion" but will continue in this thread inasmuch the 2 threads seem like kissing cousins.
I could use some help here also. There is a tool with the hackish sounding name of Blink and Smack from Radtools. I have used it with bittersweet results. I can blink the S5's avi's with great success in compression and excellent quality and also combine mulitple files into one movie. However the player is proprietary so you have to use the blink player to view.
You are also supposed to be able to convert the movie to an AVI container for a different codec that would be compatible with programs say like Nero to make VCD or DivX movies. This portion is where I get lost, the results usually degrade or omit sund and the frames are cut into sections and display like a collage, which is interesting to watch the skaters face or body moving in the largest section of the frame while their skates are skating in a section right above their head.
Anyways, I think someone more familiar working the technical aspect of setting up the input criteria of format conversions would be able to provide an answer.
FYI, if anyone does decides to give this a try let me say for reference I took about 21 seperate S5 avi files (4.3 GB's) and blinked them into one hour long file compressed to 1.3 gigabytes. Awesome playback but it took 25 hours to convert. So the initial conversion takes some time but once you do the required conversion to a blink or smack format the secondary conversions to change the codes has taken far less time varying an hour to 4 hours depending on codec choosen.
Radtools link for your review : http://www.radgametools.com/default.htm

P.S. Radtools help page indicates the most current version of Quicktime be installed using the custom install option is required for Blink or Smack to succesfully convert codecs. That may be my problem and I apologize for posting this without having done this on my CP before post.