sjdewalt

Q: Compressor Making Files Bigger?

I recently cut a 30-sec teaser for a short film. I exported the teaser as a self-contained movie (350Mb). I then compressed the teaser for streaming using a preset that I created quite a long time ago -- the teaser came out to be 750Mb. Obviously something is not right.

 

A few months ago I used this same preset on a 30-sec commercial. The commercial went from 177Mb to 91Mb. No issue. It uploaded to YouTube and plays perfectly fine. The teaser however looks awful when uploaded - looks all blocky/smeary.

 

Any idea what may be causing this? Could the issue be originating in FCP? Thanks in advance for any feedback.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on May 13, 2014 7:28 AM

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Q: Compressor Making Files Bigger?

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  • by RatVega™,Helpful

    RatVega™ RatVega™ May 13, 2014 9:13 AM in response to sjdewalt
    Level 4 (2,005 points)
    May 13, 2014 9:13 AM in response to sjdewalt

    Compressor 3.5 has a series of presets that may help. You might try the YouTube preset and dial down the data rate (8Mbps) if the size is excessive.

     

    Another option:  Encoding for YouTube Using Compressor

     

    hope this helps

  • by sjdewalt,

    sjdewalt sjdewalt May 13, 2014 9:29 AM in response to RatVega™
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 13, 2014 9:29 AM in response to RatVega™

    Thanks so much for the suggestions and sharing that article. I'll definitely play around with some other settings.

     

    However, I'd still like to understand why my preset (which has worked fine up until this teaser) is suddenly making the file more than twice the original size, not to mention it looks awful.

  • by Michael Grenadier,

    Michael Grenadier Michael Grenadier May 13, 2014 9:59 AM in response to sjdewalt
    Level 7 (20,362 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 13, 2014 9:59 AM in response to sjdewalt

    The only way we can help is if you give us the specs for the quicktime you exported from fcp (pixel dimensions, frame rate and codec) and the specs in your preset.

     

    It's also possible your preset got corrupted.

  • by sjdewalt,

    sjdewalt sjdewalt May 13, 2014 1:18 PM in response to Michael Grenadier
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 13, 2014 1:18 PM in response to Michael Grenadier

    1920x1080/24p/Apple Pro Res LT

     

    That was a good thought with suggesting that the preset got corrupted, however I just made another one with the same results.

     

    Thanks again for your time.

  • by Michael Grenadier,

    Michael Grenadier Michael Grenadier May 13, 2014 1:20 PM in response to sjdewalt
    Level 7 (20,362 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 13, 2014 1:20 PM in response to sjdewalt

    And what are the specs in your compressor preset?  Here's what I do for youtube.  I customize the apple:  formats:  quicktime:  h264 preset by in the encoder panel, bringing the video settings quality down to good.  I also often resize to 720.

  • by sjdewalt,

    sjdewalt sjdewalt May 13, 2014 2:19 PM in response to Michael Grenadier
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 13, 2014 2:19 PM in response to Michael Grenadier

    I usually keep my quality setting at high and the size at 1080. I'll try dropping it back, but it's just frustrating when my previous settings have always worked up to this point. I don't want to sacrifice any additional quality if it isn't necessary.

     

    I definitely think there's something wrong when Compressor is making a file more than twice its original size, regardless of using high-quality settings. But maybe there's something I'm not understanding.

     

    Thanks for your suggestions.

  • by Michael Grenadier,

    Michael Grenadier Michael Grenadier May 14, 2014 7:44 AM in response to sjdewalt
    Level 7 (20,362 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 14, 2014 7:44 AM in response to sjdewalt

    Try the "good" setting.  It looks really "good."  ProResLT is already compressed and I suspect the results your getting with a "high" setting for h264 are normal.

     

    Just checked the file size calculation using digital rebellions video space calculator for ProResLT and H264 for 1080 material and they are virtually the same.

     

    http://www.digitalrebellion.com/webapps/video_calc.html

     

    I prefer to post stuff to youtube and vimeo as 720 rather than 1080.  Still looks great full screen, but playback on youtube and vimeo is generally smoother with 720 material.

  • by sjdewalt,

    sjdewalt sjdewalt May 15, 2014 9:20 AM in response to Michael Grenadier
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 15, 2014 9:20 AM in response to Michael Grenadier

    Okay, I think I may be closing in on the problem.

     

    I went back to my first sequence from when I first started editing the teaser. The sequence only had basic color correction, no other filters. I exported a movie from this sequence and put it through Compressor using my old preset. The result was a fraction of the size, and it uploaded to YouTube without an issue (even at high quality, 1080). In other words, everything worked fine.

     

    My most current sequence not only has the color correction, but a number of other filters as well, including Tint, Vignette, and a Nattress plug-in for film grain. All of this seems to be resulting in a much bigger, messed file from Compressor.

     

    Is it possible these additional filters (particularly the plug-in) result in a movie file too large/complex for Compressor to handle properly?

     

    Thanks so much again for your earlier thoughts, and any you may have on this.

  • by Michael Grenadier,

    Michael Grenadier Michael Grenadier May 15, 2014 9:59 AM in response to sjdewalt
    Level 7 (20,362 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 15, 2014 9:59 AM in response to sjdewalt

    are you "sending to compressor" from within fcp?  Not the best way.  File:  export:  quicktime movie with current settings and bring THAT file into compressor.

  • by sjdewalt,

    sjdewalt sjdewalt May 15, 2014 12:18 PM in response to Michael Grenadier
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 15, 2014 12:18 PM in response to Michael Grenadier

    Nope, I'm making a QT movie which I import into Compressor. And I make the movie as you said, not QT conversion.

  • by Michael Grenadier,

    Michael Grenadier Michael Grenadier May 15, 2014 12:23 PM in response to sjdewalt
    Level 7 (20,362 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 15, 2014 12:23 PM in response to sjdewalt

    have you tried my droplet?

  • by sjdewalt,

    sjdewalt sjdewalt May 15, 2014 5:42 PM in response to Michael Grenadier
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 15, 2014 5:42 PM in response to Michael Grenadier

    No, honestly I'm not familiar.

  • by Michael Grenadier,

    Michael Grenadier Michael Grenadier May 16, 2014 10:56 AM in response to sjdewalt
    Level 7 (20,362 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 16, 2014 10:56 AM in response to sjdewalt

    Sorry about the "droplet" post.  I confused this thread with another.

     

    What codec are you using in compressor?  H264?

  • by sjdewalt,

    sjdewalt sjdewalt May 16, 2014 2:11 PM in response to Michael Grenadier
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 16, 2014 2:11 PM in response to Michael Grenadier

    Yes, H264.

     

    Here's another strange thing I forgot to mention: The compressed file (though a ridiculous size) looks fine when played back in preview. Only after it's uploaded to YouTube does it look poor. Of course, I initailly thought it may be a problem with YouTube, but then I tried Vimeo -- same results: very smeary/blocky. So I still think the problem is with the file that I'm uploading, despite it looking good on the surface.

     

    I don't know if this info helps or confuses matters, but I thought I'd mention it.

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