AVI files are extremely large when uncompressed, so you will want to compress your clips when you export them to AVI files.  Each computer can have a different selection of AVI compressors available. ShowCase does not install these AVI compressors on your machine; They came with the operating system or sometimes with other media software you may have installed.  ShowCase provides a dialog showing all compression options registered on your machine and allows you to chose which to use.

Dr. Lars Thorelius, a ShowCase customer from University Hospital in Linköping, Sweden, recently used an image compressor from DivXNetworks, Inc. to process ultrasound images, producing AVI files with high quality and small file size. If you would like to try DivX, you will probably want to use the settings preferred by Dr. Thorelius -- Click on this text to jump to his DivX settings information. Click here to read Dr. Thorelius' article published on Aunt Minnie.com. You can download the DivX codec from the web site. A free version of the codec is available.

Three very common compressors are Microsoft Video 1®, Cinepak® and Indeo ®.  Microsoft Video 1 should have been installed as part of your Windows operating system. For those of you who work on Macs, Cinepak is known for working well across different platforms. If Cinepak is not available on your computer, you can order CinePak on the web. (Use the link above.) Compressors offer a range of "quality" settings. You will probably want to experiment with different compressors and different quality settings to decide a good balance between image quality and file size.

Quality vs Size - Performance is always a factor in deciding how much to compress your images. Extremely large files may not play at full speed in slideshows and AVI players. Test your files and find a good compromise between quality and size that works on your computer for your specific application.

If you are transporting your AVI files to play on another machine (eg: taking a Powerpoint presentation to another site), keep in mind that the other machine will need the matching decompressor in order to play your AVI file. The 3 compressors mentioned above are widely available on Windows machines.