If you have to choose between file size and vid clarity, go for the latter;
File size and clarity are usually interrelated: the more frames-per-second and higher resoultion you save at, the larger file size you end up with. Even compressing nicely with the fancy schmancy DiVX codecs can only get your file so small. With animation file sizes are larger because quality is easy to lose very quickly if you overcompress or try to scrunch the pictures too much. Live action is more forgiving.
So as a *general* rule better quality = somewhat larger size. Where this becomes an issue for people is with paying for hosting bandwidth (my site uses on average 25 GB of bandwidth a month, with a surge up to as much as 40GB when a new vid is uploaded) ... obviously smaller files wind up resulting in less cost. And for people not on high-speed connections, downloading a larger file is an exercise in either frustration or impossibility. A vidder has to weigh a choice between larger file size and better quality against the potential loss of a significant portion of the viewing audience who can't download the vid. I made a vid size of 45 MB once and my email box was filled with complaints about the file size (so I put up a 10 MB smaller version alongside).
So ... online vids have their niche, but the only true way to get the best quality and most reliable accessibility is to see if the vidder can send you a tape or DVD. Barring that, with online vids, you get what you can get :)
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File size and clarity are usually interrelated: the more frames-per-second and higher resoultion you save at, the larger file size you end up with. Even compressing nicely with the fancy schmancy DiVX codecs can only get your file so small. With animation file sizes are larger because quality is easy to lose very quickly if you overcompress or try to scrunch the pictures too much. Live action is more forgiving.
So as a *general* rule better quality = somewhat larger size. Where this becomes an issue for people is with paying for hosting bandwidth (my site uses on average 25 GB of bandwidth a month, with a surge up to as much as 40GB when a new vid is uploaded) ... obviously smaller files wind up resulting in less cost. And for people not on high-speed connections, downloading a larger file is an exercise in either frustration or impossibility. A vidder has to weigh a choice between larger file size and better quality against the potential loss of a significant portion of the viewing audience who can't download the vid. I made a vid size of 45 MB once and my email box was filled with complaints about the file size (so I put up a 10 MB smaller version alongside).
So ... online vids have their niche, but the only true way to get the best quality and most reliable accessibility is to see if the vidder can send you a tape or DVD. Barring that, with online vids, you get what you can get :)