Downloading and sending vid's on email

[Pat B.]

Guys, I need some help. I'm just about a computer idiot, so---.

I took some vid's with a little Panasonic digital camera. Then I downloaded them into "My Pictures". When I try to send that file via email the attachment doesn't make the trip. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Also, when I try to view the vid by inserting the media card into my computer a drop box appears asking what I want to do.. When I click on view with Windows media Player it won't play?

When I downloaded into "My Pictures" I can then get it to play on Quicktime player but can't send it to an email recipeant..

                Can anybody help me ?

                          Thanks

[Tom Mussatto]

Pat, if your camera is taking video on an SD card it is probably MPEG4 codec. If so, older versions of WMP won't recognize it. You might be able to tell what codec they are by right clicking the file and then clicking on "properties".

The files may be too large to send through email. Go into explorer and locate the files. Under "details" you should be able to see how large the files are. Do they attach to your mail but won't go, or can you not even attach them?

Your best bet would be to convert the video from MPEG4 to wmv format. This will both reduce the file size and is more compatible with other viewers.

[Pat B.]

Thank you so much Tom.

My camera does use an SD card.. I right clicked and went into properties. All it told me is that it's a file folder and the size which is 70mb. What is WMP?

When I click on "email this file" the file does attach to an email but as soon as I click on the send button the attachment disappears off the email.

How would I convert from MPEG4 to WMV format and would I have to do that on every vid or ?

Sorry to be so unclear on this but I do thank you for your assistence!
                 Pat

[Tom Mussatto]

Pat, 70MB is awfully big to be sending through email. If you are using one of the net web services it probably exceeds their limits on file size.

WMP= Windows Media Player

Do a search on Google for "MPEG4 to wmv conversion software" and you should find several free downloads of programs that will do this for you. By converting to wmv you will reduce considerably the file size and have your video in a format that most viewers will play.

If you are wanting to share the video you can opt for loading the video onto one of the video host sights such Vimeo and then give the address of your video to those who you were going to send it to in email. You will not have to worry about codec compatibility this way as the viewer is embedded on the sight. YouTube does the same thing but 70MB far exceeds their size limit.

[Pat B.]

Tom, thanks for all your help..  
Got it done, I think, lol..