I'm confusticated

Man, when I figure this one out, I’m gonna be so happy. QuickTime makes no sense.

I’m starting with a 27 megabyte video, 800x600 resolution, 12.5 fps. Makes sense.

What I want to do, is convert it to a lower-quality, smaller video file for web streaming. The problem? I can’t come up with a smaller file.

I’ve shot the quality to hell, capped the resolution at 320x240, and compressed the audio six ways from center…only to get a file that’s twice as big as the original. I’ve got no clue what’s going on - it doesn’t even make any sense.

How the hell is a higher quality video file taking up less space?