Photo Booth video files now much larger

Question

Level 4

3,118 points

Photo Booth video files now much larger

On 12 June I made a 3-minute video using Photo Booth, and the file size was 7.8 MB. I made another 3-minute video on 16 August, and the file size had leapt to 38.5MB, about 5 times as large.

Both were made in Snow Leopard. No special effects were added.

Can anyone explain why video files made by Photo Booth have increased in size so dramatically?

Previously, I used to send short Photo Booth videos as e-mail attachments (as video messages), but this is now practically impossible.

I'd be very grateful for any insight - and also for any information about how recording video files can be returned to its former bitrate. As far as I can see, there are no settings within Photo Booth that control the size of the file being recorded.

Thanks in advance!

NB I posted this quested in the iMac Intel forum, but that may be the wrong place for it, as nobody has replied.

Posted on Aug 31, 2011 2:58 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Aug 31, 2011 2:15 PM in response to John Potts

Hi,

I happened to check my Photo Booth version 3.0.3 in Snow Leopard today for a thread elsewhere in the Discussions.

I made a short Video (No Effects/Backdrops) of a few seconds.

I then highlit in the list and went to the File Menu > Export.

Mine was telling me that it was going to Store a .gif (Presumably animated)

I had seen this or another title with a similar Problem on "My Home Page" as I logged in.

I was presuming the issue was going to be with Lion and it being saved as .mov file.

I have checked earlier saved Files and they are .mov files
Other than the length I recorded I can not see why this would change (As you say there are no settings in Photo Booth)

EDIT

On checking further it seems the Export feature is the bit that makes them .gifs rather than give you Quicktime type options.

It seems it defaults to a frame a sec as well and can look quite jerky afterwards

At the moment I cannot explain this one.

10:15 PM Wednesday; August 31, 2011

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Reply

Answer 2

John Potts Author

Level 4

3,118 points

Sep 4, 2011 4:57 AM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Thanks for your reply Ralph. Yes, the export is only as a gif, so no use as a video. You can find the actual video movie file in PIctures> PhotoBooth.

My FaceTime camera went hyper flakey today, applying a dark blue filter to everything (whether in iMovie recordings, QuickTime recordings or PhotoBooth recordings), so I restarted the iMac. The restart cured the camera problem, but also affected the video file sizes in PhotoBooth...

Now, a minute of PBooth video weighs in at about 4MB, as it used to. So, problem solved - what, when, where, who, why, how, etc is still a mystery to me, but there we are.

Reply

Answer 3

Sep 4, 2011 11:49 AM in response to John Potts

Hi,

I am glad you came across the fix.

I still cannot explain this even with you extra details.

It does however sound like a Quartz file is being applied.

Quartz files are what produces the Effects and the Backdrops and are kept in System/Library/Compositions.

Commonly these are referred to as a Blue or Green Screen feature.

For some you have to move out of the Shot so iChat can identify the Background. It may do this by applying a Blue mask to the shot at that point.

Anyhow, more ideas than fact and does not really explain why the File got bigger.

7:49 PM Sunday; September 4, 2011

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Reply