Trimming doesn't change file size?

Question

Trimming doesn't change file size?

I used the new QuickTime with Snow Leopard to trim off about 50% of a movie file with scenes I didn't need. The goal was to save hard drive space as the file is quite large. For some strange reason, even though I deleted 50% of the file's scenes, the file size is exactly the same. Is there something I'm missing here?

MacBook Pro 13", Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Nov 21, 2009 6:53 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 21, 2009 11:46 AM in response to Sean Mcclafferty

You need to do a SAVE AS and rename the file. (You can't overwrite a Quicktime video with a SAVE AS. So, you need to rename the video.)

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Answer 2

Nov 22, 2009 10:47 AM in response to David M Brewer

Tried that twice. Didn't work; same file size as the full file.

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Answer 3

loekie

Level 1

8 points

Jan 25, 2010 7:04 AM in response to Sean Mcclafferty

For me it works on a MacPro with Snow Leopard.

🙂

Paul Delcour

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Answer 4

Feb 14, 2010 6:49 PM in response to Sean Mcclafferty

QT and Tiger on a PowerBook always kept the same size for me, even with Save As, but under Snow Leopard on a MBPro, the file size is smaller. A lot smaller, actually: A 124MB file trimmed in half went to 15MB.

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Answer 5

Jon Walker

Level 6

19,467 points

Feb 15, 2010 3:49 AM in response to Sean Mcclafferty

Is there something I'm missing here?

Possibly. Would you happen to be trying to trim MPG (MPEG-1), MPEG (MPEG-2), or other similar types of files which are only "playback" or "conversions" compatible with QT? In these cases it appears that QT X only performs a "logical" trimming of the content and not a physical one. Thus, the original file is not really decreased in size and only the "in" and "out" points are actually changed in the rewritten file container.

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