Exporting video and keeping a reasonable file size

Hi there,
I think I am posting in the correct section (Leopard Upgrade from Dec 07 - not upgraded iLife since so does that make it iMovie HD 6? (am away from the Mac right now)).
I enjoy using iMovie but one thing that bugs me is the Expert settings when exporting to a file.
For example I have a 30 minute video which I downloaded from a Mini DV camcorder. Now I have done the editing etc but when I go to export it I find that the defaults settings do not give me what I want (640x480 resolution and basic sound quality). So I use the expert settings and play around with them. So far I have placed the settings I want and exported as an .avi and a .mov, I forget which way around it was but one was about 4.5GB! and the other was 700Mb - it is a very simple video - not a lot of movement, its a video of an interview.
Now on a Windows machine I expect I could export to a .wmv and it would be great quality at under 100MB.
So, I ask the experts, where am I going wrong in not achieving a good video quality at a manageable file size? I know I could pay up and install the Flip4Mac Studio software but I am sure Apple have provided an equivalent solution that I have not found.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Jack

640x480 is a bit 'exotic' if your source is PAL ...
the smaller the res, the dramatic smaller is file size ..
try in the expert dialog h264 as codec, if you have low action, try 15 or 12fps, make audio mono..
you can downsize resulting file by playing around with the quality settings of h264 ..

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