How to export movie as high quality MP4

Question

Level 1

41 points

How to export movie as high quality MP4

I have already made several movies successfully using iMovie, & they seemed to work fine, & all came out in a usable format, & quite high quality. But now when I 'export' them they end up as 'm4v' files (don't even know what this is). There is a thread on here from 2011 that suggests using 'export via Quicktime', & then selecting 'MP4'. I tried this but the movie then becomes really tiny - only 2MB instead of the original 22MB! I really don't understand WHY Apple has to make every single tiny thing so difficult & complicated! WHY is there not a simple option to create high quality MP4 movies? Can anyone help here?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jun 12, 2015 1:31 PM

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Answer 1

GeeD

Level 6

9,179 points

Jan 6, 2017 3:32 AM in response to AliWonder

Adding to Rich's comments, it is possible that your project is set to a lower resolution than your original media. Click on 'Settings' at the top right of the timeline to find the project resolution.:

This setting is determined by the resolution of the very first clip put into the project timeline when the project is created.

When sharing this is the highest resolution that you can specify.

If this is the reason you can create a new project, put a clip with your desired resolution into the timeline, than copy all and paste from your existing project. That first clip can now be deleted.

Geoff.

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Answer 2

jeremy_v

Community Specialist

Jun 14, 2015 1:01 PM in response to AliWonder

Hi AliWonder,

Thank you for participating in the Apple Support Communities.

It seems like you're sharing video from iMovie and the file type of the exported video file is m4v instead of mp4.

Like mp4, m4v is a video file format that is used on your Mac, and it's normal for video to be exported as m4v depending on the Share settings you picked in iMovie.

For more information and help with iMovie Share settings, see these links:

Media formats supported by QuickTime Player - Apple Support

Email a movie, trailer, or clip - iMovie Help

Best Regards,

Jeremy

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Answer 3

AliWonder Author

Level 1

41 points

Aug 8, 2015 10:50 AM in response to jeremy_v

Hi Jeremy; thanks, I've just found this response to my question posted in June. Thanks; but it really doesn't help; it's just a list of movie formats supported by Apple.

I am shooting very high quality MP4 videos on a professional camera; so there must be a way of preserving this quality after editing the video in iMovie? I do not understand why the MP4 movies are shrunk on export to an unusable poor quality, & the only way of exporting a high quality movie is to turn it into a WAV file. But I want the movies to be viewable as the original MP4 format! What if my clients don't have the software to view WAV? But everyone can watch an MP4 video.

Is there some other movie editing software out there that will work better than iMovie?

(I hate Apple!)

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Answer 4

Jan 5, 2017 9:44 PM in response to AliWonder

this was useful for me...

http://www.ezs3.com/public/What_bitrate_should_I_use_when_encoding_my_video_How_ do_I_optimize_my_video_for_the_web.cfm

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Answer 5

Rich839

Level 8

48,156 points

Jan 5, 2017 10:33 PM in response to AliWonder

Export/share as Best (pro res). and that will give you a high quality .mov file that has a higher bitrate than Mp4.

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