I have a lot of files I want to convert to wmv because I'll be hosting them on my webspace and I don't want to waste tons of bandwidth. I also like wmv because almost anyone can play it, and my audience may not have codecs and other things installed.
I'm wondering what the ideal way to compress things is. does it matter what software is used to convert to wmv? what do you suggest?
the source videos are of varying formats. xvid, ogm, mkv etc.
is resizing the video generally a bad idea? ie, would the original resolution at a lower bitrate be preferable to a smaller resolution? (since the smaller resolution will look less compressed at the same bitrate)
are there any things I should keep in mind when going for small filesizes?
(I know people hate wmv, and I know lossy -> lossy is a bad idea in general, but it's about my only option here..)

