What is the most highly compressed video format?

High Definition I woudl say is the first answer
 but quicktime and divx comes close
 Q2
good capture software like
adobe premiere pro cs4
http://www.manifest-tech.com/media_pc/hd_desktop_prem.htm
http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/
camatasia stdio
http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp
Divx
http://www.divx.com/en/products/software/windows/compare-divx
quicktime pro
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/
the 'most economical way'
imagine taking a photo with a generic camera then trying to make it high definition.
 the best tools producuce  the best, I guess it depends if you want professional or just great stuff.
and what your budget is.
There is free  desktop capture tools like cam studio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CamStudio
Video compression
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_compression

All of those 'tools' produce a variety of 'formats'.  Which format (i.e. swf, wmv, mov, etc) is capable of the highest compression levels.

Using your references .MOV uses the highest compression.
What did you have in mind?
Is this for personal use, or web based etc?
Youtube?
Simply put mpg is the best standard for capturing and working with if you wish to edit later.
It's also the format used in DVD
The video scale is the quality ( compression) capture a video on the desktop with a frame rate of 25
and video scale of 720 x 576  you'll get a great  DVD quality.
Scale of 320 x 240 is small but also produces a great quality for a small sized player
Increasing the frame rates results in better quality but a larger output.
http://www.pixelmetrics.com/Tips/VidTips/IncFps.php

hmmm.  If you go to screentoaster.com, you can save a file as .mov or .swf.  SWF is much smaller.  Is there a format smaller than swf?

Hey Merete, quick question: How do you figure that "high definition" is the most highly compressed video format? I'm sure Rtod2 is asking what's the best 'squeeze' he can get, not what compression has the highest resolution.

Rtod2,
The best screen recording software for video/audio that I have found (and the simplest) is Replay Video System. http://applian.com/

Re: "What is the most highly compressed video format."  All the video formats, MPEG, WMV, Flash etc can compress as high as you like, so the question isn't really relevant.  Just to simplify things. When a video is compressed the main targets are:
1) The display resolution
2) The Bitrate
3) The framerate.

But before you compress anything you have to decice on the display resolution -- that's how big it will display on any screen without streeeeeeeetching the pixels -- and making the picture look grainy.

Replay Video System offers you a choice of 2 different codecs, MPEG-2, the broadcast and DVD standard, and WMV9, Microsoft's brilliant codec that in its VC-1 form has been specified for Blu-Ray High Def.  I use WMV9 is it produces the same display resolution, bitrate and framerates as MPEG-2 but much less file size, and WMV files can be played on just about anything these days.
If you go outside MPEG and WMV you're going to loose quality. Even YouTube, which uses Flash for its Standard res videos now uses MPEG-4 for its High Definition Videos.
You don't have to set the screen resolution when capturing a video window as you just set the markers and it captures everything within those markers. So if you choose to watch your screencast in the highest resolution that's what you'll be capturing when you set your markers in RVC.

Thanks, so "record to wmv" is what I am basically getting.  Is there a free tool that will record into this format?

1. answer: wmv
2. answer: http://applian.com/ $99
3. answer: ?

The $99 is for the entire suite. RVC is just $39.95 -- and there's a free trial. So try it first -- but be careful it's so good it's addictive!
http://applian.com/replay-video-capture/index.php

Sorry I think you were also asking for the capture specs. Of course the resolution is automatic as it just grabs what you frame you set with the markers. The bitrate does affect the quality so I keep this relatively high 1200kbps and I use 25fps for the framerate. Dropping the framerate doesn't really reduce  the file size
all that much but largely affects the quality so I try to stay around the PAL standard, which is 25fps.
 

So is there a 'free' alternative for capturing into wmv format?

Yes, probably several. Windows Media Encoder will do this, but it is nowhere near the quality of RVC.
Can't remember what Camstudio (free) captures in but it's a rubbish programme, so who cares?

mr shovel, my opinion of you has improved slightly of late '-)

Thankyou Mr Bullmonkey... and until our summer comes ( December 1st) I'll have to grit my teeth and pretend you're not really wearing that short shirt sleeve shirt.
Just adding about the best compression. MPEG-2 was really the best until they worked on MPEG-4 (there was no MPEG-3 it was trashed). But MPEG-2 couldn't squeeze as much as they needed, especially with HD coming along with its 1920 x1080 pixels. So finally in December 2003 MPEG released MPEG-4 AVC a.k.a. H.264, which by the way is what Quicktime now uses but with a little fiddle so their proprietery .mov files are not exactly the same as H.264 even though they are using and paying for the H.264 licence.
Then Microsoft with its brilliant WMV9 codec went to SMPTE with a slight variation and got VC-1 specified into the Blu-Ray and HD DVD standard. Flash is great for PCs but the codec is not specified in the standard DVD players or in the Blu-Ray HD players, so it's domain remains on the Net. I personally prefer Flash for streaming because its non problematic and just about everyone on the planet has the Flash player installed on their PC. Windows Media Players have proven problematic with all their versions and there have also been probs with Quicktime.

although the question is a little ambigulous, i think i kinda understand what the asker is getting at

i have noticed no mention of xvid and in terms of compression it is fairly decent although the other format that has not really had a decent mention despite its emergence as the king is my favourite, .flv. versatile and perfect for streaming

fredshovel, you are right
i prefer to wear shirts but unfortunatly my huge muscles split the seams and so i am forced to wear these. i pray for an unattractive boney body but unfortunatly miracles never happen overnigh

@ rtod2
Thanks, so "record to wmv" is what I am basically getting.  
>>Is there a free tool that will record into this format? <<
No
If you have a capture card yes, but you want to capture the desktop
Capture the desktop ( regeon)  then convert to WMV if you want.
Cam studio does a good job in itself just capture to 320 x 240 and convert to mpg using Super Video converter they are both free
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/SUPER
cam studio also captures a regeon output is either SWF or avi.
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/CamStudio
Not free
 WM Recorder
http://www.wmrecorder.com/

adding
convert to WMV, Super has a few different formats you can decide what to convert your video to

It looked like you were mentioning a record screencast to wmv here... "adding, convert to WMV, Super has a few different formats you can decide what to convert your video to".
Do you have a link to that one?
 
 

Host site long read
http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html
quicker
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/SUPER

Yep, I agree.  I have my answer.
1. WMV format
2. Applian Replay Video Capture - RVC ($49)
3. Windows Media Encoder (free)
Thanks Fred

Cheers, but I wouldn't use Windows Media Encoder. I just nominated it as a bad example. If you want to convert between formats I recommend Prism (not free but there's a limited free version) -- it's very simple and does the job very well without too many confusing choices -- but enough to get the job done. And then of course there's the tried and tested Super, which we all have long used.