How to Make My Video Files Smaller to Share?

Question

sampan Author

Level 1

10 points

How to Make My Video Files Smaller to Share?

Hi,

Most of the videos that I exported from FinalCuto Pro are huge.

I exported the video to AppleTV even though this's not my intention. A 12min video give me about 500MB which

is way too big. Then I used Handbrake to convert my video at lower bitrate. The video becomes about 100MB but

its quality is not good.

My question is what's the best way to export my video. What software would be good to use to convert my

video to a smaller size but still retain some good quality.

Some movie videos that I downloaed have longer duration than my simple video but its file sizes are much smaller.

The pictures are still clear. That's why I just wonder.

Thanks.

Final Cut Pro X, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jul 17, 2012 8:35 AM

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Answer 1

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,780 points

Jul 17, 2012 8:49 AM in response to sampan

Why are you exporting? Where are you trying to get to? How is the video being delivered?

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Answer 2

sampan Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 17, 2012 4:10 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

I used Share > Export to export my FCP project to a movie formate so I can share it on the website at youtube.

Since the file size is too big, it always take so long for me to upload the file.

FCP seems only let me to output a file as MP4 instead of MPEG4.

I have another video I would export this week. I will try a different codex and see if one particular would compress my video more than the others. Other than that, do you think FCP is a good way to output/export my video?

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Answer 3

GigzHD

Level 1

25 points

Jul 17, 2012 8:51 PM in response to sampan

Best thing you can do, is to grab Compressor. FCPX has been build to work with it easily.

Inside Compressor you can reduce your file size output by tweaking quality, framerate, codec...

OR

You can output a full quality video from FCPX and use your favorite compression tool.

Personnaly, I'm using Sorenson Squeeze everyday! But for some job, I still prefer Compressor.

Hope that help!

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Answer 4

sampan Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 18, 2012 4:51 AM in response to GigzHD

Thanks Gigzhd,

I would purchase compressor but saw a lot of bad reviews from appl store. i would export at different settings for my next video. if file sizes are still big, i would go to grab compressor.

sorenson squeeze seems really nice becuase it lets you try before i purchase. when i checked the price of the product, i was so surprised how expensive it's.

if you don't mind, can i ask you once more thing.

i only use FCP to do family and kids videos and share at youtube. HD video footage are so large to work with.

Do you use compressor sometimes to reduce the file sizes first and then import in FCP?

I thought of doing this so this would speed up rendering in FCP.

What do you think?

Thanks.

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Answer 5

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Jul 18, 2012 8:25 AM in response to sampan

Just curious: why not use one of the smaller You Tube presets in FCPX? Say, 720 or 540. (Assuming you're working in HD.)

If you don't want to buy Compressor, Squeeze, etc. but want more control over the size, consider downloading MPEG Streamclip. It's a free app that has much of (though not all of) the functionality of the others. And it's pretty fast.

I realize you asked your last question of GigzHD, but if I were you I would edit in the size I shot. In other words, I would want to work with as much information as possible as long as possible and limit the number of compressiom steps to as few as possible. And of course, scaling your movie in any compression software as a prliminary step will add some encoding time which may be considerable. (No free lunch.)

Russ

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Answer 6

GigzHD

Level 1

25 points

Jul 18, 2012 10:39 AM in response to sampan

I totally agree with Russ!

I never compress my footage prior to edit. I want the maximum quality for CC and grading. Compression should be the last step.

If you want to speed up your editing experience, you can use proxies. Very efficient if you have RAW Red footage ( I know you don't shot family video with RED, its only an example! ) or if your computer slowing down by HD material for some reasons.

Good luck in your project! :-)

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Answer 7

sampan Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 19, 2012 8:33 PM in response to Russ H

Thanks Russ,

I will stick with what I have right now. You gave me another option. I already downloaded MPEG Stremclip. I'll try and see if this would convert my next video smaller than FCP.

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Answer 8

sampan Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 19, 2012 8:39 PM in response to GigzHD

Thanks GigzHD

I understand the concept now. It's like Photoshop. Always work with the master file.

My current project I imported as Proxies. In my preference, I use Optimized media for playing. That may cause my video drop some frames when I was doing edits. I chose using Proxies for playing in Perference. Video run smoothly. Some of my projects got missing medias because they were imported in proxies. That makes me don't understand why FCP has indiviual perference for each project so my problems won't happen.

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Answer 9

sampan Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 22, 2012 9:16 PM in response to Russ H

Hi Russ,

I finally tested MPEG Streamclip. It worked great. My video exported from FCP gave me abou 100MB for about 1 min video. With MPEG Streamclip, I exported my m4v into MPEG with a quality set to 60%, my file size could be reduced to about 40MB. It's great. When I play my compressed video, I can't notice any difference from FCP's output.

I could understand the adv of having Compresor. It would compress my FCP project directly when I do my export.

With MPEG Streamclip, I have to export my video from FCP and then do a compression.

Compressor would be a straight forward approach. For me, I'm happy with Streamclip because it's free.

Thanks for your sharing.

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