Exporting for Facebook Video?

It depends... how big is the file size when exporting to quicktime? It may be to large to post. How large is the max file size allowed on facebook?

If the file size using Quicktime Movie is small enough, go for it. However, I have the feeling it is going to be better to use Quicktime Conversion to optimize it for web viewing.

Then to preserve quality choose Export to Quicktime to make it a simple Quicktime movie without compression. You can then select it from facebook for upload.

My films are short, usually a minute or two. I export them with QuickTime conversion as HD using H.264, Best quality, multi-pass, auto keyframes, with AAC audio at 48.000kHz. If I don't do HD, I'll use 960x540. Comes out clean and sharp every time 🙂

Scott Hampton wrote:
My films are short, usually a minute or two. I export them with QuickTime conversion as HD using H.264, Best quality, multi-pass, auto keyframes, with AAC audio at 48.000kHz. If I don't do HD, I'll use 960x540. Comes out clean and sharp every time 🙂

Hi Scott,

The video I am trying to export is only 90 seconds & using the normal EXPORT > QUICKTIME, the file is 370 MB. So I used EXPORT > QUICKTIME CONVERSION using your settings.

But the quality is pretty bad. Plus, it took ages (about 45 mins) to compile the file. Filesize drop from 370MB to 120MB. But isn't this too large for a 90 seconds video ?

Thanks

Hi guys,

my video using file > Export > quicktime movie ends up having a size 1.3GB for a 6.5 mins video.

When i use streamclip to convert it Mpeg-4, it becomes 186MB. But this is still way too big for facebook which has a limit of 100MB.

Finally I found a way to render them for the web which works. Basically, I follow Diana's instruction in her Apple Pro Training book. Below is the summary of the steps she taught me in her book:

Video:
Compression: MPEG-4 Video
Frame Rate: 15 fps
Keyframe: 5
Data Field Rate: 700 kbits/s
Quality: Best

Size:
Dimension: Custom; I typed in 480 x 270

Sound:
Format: AAC
Channel: Stereo
Rate: 32 kHz

DESELECT prepare for Internet Streaming

And this works fine bcos the final filesize is only 36 MB.

Since it is only 36MB, any suggested way to improve the video quality ?

Will changing the Frame Rate to 25fps looks better ?

Thanks

Of course it's not going to look great when doing that, you are drastically reducing the frame size and frame rate from what it once was. Only way to get better quality is to get bigger file sizes. Try pushing up the frame size somewhat and see if that helps. Also, best to keep the frame-size in the same ratio it was originally. If it was originally 4:3, make it a smaller frame size than it was at first, but keep the 4:3 ratio. If it was 16:9, same concept.

Though 480 x 270 is 16:9, changing it that drastically is definitely not going to give you nice results.

skalicki` wrote:

Though 480 x 270 is 16:9, changing it that drastically is definitely not going to give you nice results.

Thanks skalicki, Are you refering to the format originally before importing to FCE ? My video is clips are originally set to 16:9 in the video camera. When I capture in FCE, I use 16:9. But the photos taken in digital camera are 4:3, so I have click the ananorphic column for all the still pictures. After that when placed on canvas, it look 16:9.

I thought of using 480 x 270 because I wanted my end product to look 16:9.

All the clips in the browser, I tick the anamorphic column. And when I placed in on the timeline, it also looks 16:9 in the canvas.

So, in my case choosing of 480 x 270 correct ?

Thanks

If your video was 16:9, I'm assuming that it was something like 1280x720 or 1920x1080. The 16:9 ratio of your 480x720 was not at fault, the point I was meaning to make was that if you take video that is at a frame-size of something like 1920x1080 and squeeze it down to 480x270, the resulting quality is not going to look very good.

skalicki` wrote:
If your video was 16:9, I'm assuming that it was something like 1280x720 or 1920x1080. The 16:9 ratio of your 480x720 was not at fault, the point I was meaning to make was that if you take video that is at a frame-size of something like 1920x1080 and squeeze it down to 480x270, the resulting quality is not going to look very good.

Thanks skalicki,

I thought to change something from 1280 x 720 to 480 x 270 is only to reduce the framesize, thus the filesize because for Facebook, the video screen is only very small size. So, why wouldn't the video looks great in the small video screen ? I thought the reduction is size is due to the smaller screen and not because of the reduction in quality ?

I suppose maybe my understanding as mentioned above is wrong. If so, then how to preserve the quality but with a smaller screen (thus smaller filesize) ?

I cut & paste below the settings suggested by Diana:

Video:
Compression: MPEG-4 Video
Frame Rate: 15 fps
Keyframe: 5
Data Field Rate: 700 kbits/s
Quality: Best

Size:
Dimension: Custom; I typed in 480 x 270

Sound:
Format: AAC
Channel: Stereo
Rate: 32 kHz

DESELECT prepare for Internet Streaming

Which of the above you think can improve the video quality.

I have adjusted the framerate to 25 fps to match my PAL video camera.

But I do not know what the numbers in the "Keyframe: 5" and "Data Field Rate: 700 kbits/s" means ?

Do you think changing the Compression settings in the video from Mpeg-Video to H264 will help improve the video quality ?

Thanks

When you change the frame-size but preserve the correct ratio, you are scaling the image to fit in that new frame-size. Any digital scaling generally results in blurry images.

Here's what I'd recommend trying:
• Upping the frame-size a bit, maybe to something like 640x360, as long as it maintains that 16:9 ratio.
• Experiment with a higher data rate, maybe something like 800 or 900kbits/s
• Try exporting as H.264.

I'm not an expert in web compression, so it might be you'd get better answers if you posted a new topic with this question so that it would be more noticeable to others.

skalicki` wrote:
When you change the frame-size but preserve the correct ratio, you are scaling the image to fit in that new frame-size. Any digital scaling generally results in blurry images.

Here's what I'd recommend trying:
• Upping the frame-size a bit, maybe to something like 640x360, as long as it maintains that 16:9 ratio.
• Experiment with a higher data rate, maybe something like 800 or 900kbits/s
• Try exporting as H.264.

I'm not an expert in web compression, so it might be you'd get better answers if you posted a new topic with this question so that it would be more noticeable to others.

Okay will create another thread. Thanks

I just got very good results exporting as suggested by Vimeo in this link:
http://vimeo.com/help/compression

Codec for video: H.264
Frame-rate: Current
Keyframes: Every 30 frames
Data rate: 5000 kbits/s
Size: 1280x720
De-interlace: Yes

Sound codec: AAC
Sound Sample Rate: 44.1kHz
Audio Quality: 128kbps

I didn't see much reduction in quality, and it reduced a 457MB file to 19MB. Try this instead of my earlier advice and see what happens.