Guys,
I have a major problem. I need to compress my FCP project to a 500mb Quicktime movie.
It's a ProRes422 project, and the length of the film is 26 minutes, with minimal cross dissolves and one 2 minute audio track.
I've Exported as Quicktime Movie and amended the settings to Least and still I'm getting a 900mb file.
What else can I do? I've tried m4v but the quality was atrocious.
Assume you mean megabytes (MB).
Since your video is 26 minutes, that will require you to get your bit rate under 2600 Mb (megabits per second. Whether you can deliver a satisfactory image quality will depend a lot on the content. You may have to reduce the resolution; 720 is likely to be more successful than 1080.
Compressor is made for situations like this. If you don't have it and don't want to buy it (@$50), consider the freeware, MPEG Streamclip.
Good luck.
Russ
Hi Russ, thanks for your reply.
I have compressor 3. Could you please give me the steps to do this? I don't mind going down to 720 either.
I also have MPEG Streamclip but have no idea how to use it. Which would be better? Compressor or MPEG Streamclip?
It's been along time since I last used 3.0
and I'm working from imperfect memory. Use a QuickTime setting. In the Encoder change the video setting to H.264 from the Comression drop down. In the Restrict To dialog,field enter 2500 kilobits. In the Geomtry pane, enter your 720 resolution.
Good lick.
RUss
Thanks for the instructions Russ.
I managed to set the QT setting to H.264 and set the geometry. But I can't seem to find the To dialog field section. Where can I find this?
I've been away from my computer all afternoon.
As I indicated, I was providing information from memory since I've been using 4.x for the past several years.
Here is the Encoder settings button for Compressor 3.5, which I believe had pretty close to the same UI layout as 3.0.
Here is a screen shot of the data rate "Restrict To" field.
Russ
Hi Russ,
Thank you very much for the screen shots and your help in this matter.
I managed to input all the settings and compress the file size down to 499MB.
As expected, the final compressed file was totally un-viewable - pixelated, colour bleed, faces unrecognisable etc!
I guess that's what I get for trying to compress a 56gb file down to 500MB!
Compressor 3 should totally be able to get you down to 500MB - there's a few things you might consider: Do not leave the Audio as "pass-through", select it and check 44.1K, that should help to reduce the size, audio takes up a bit of space when it's left at 48K high. Sometimes, depending on the content, (like if you don't have stereo music bed), you can also select Mono instead of stereo, especially if it's just dialogue.
Also, I might not use the restrict over the option to drag the quality down (to the left) on the slider: I'm suggesting you check "Automatic" in the Data rate, and then drag the slider to the left under Compressor Quality: a lot of people do not realize that when it's time to make sacrifices, the end-result of compressing a 1080p ProRes file down to 720p at say, "Low" quality still produces acceptable results!
Finally, you will at some point have to look at your situation: the TRT (26 minutes) will be tough to squish without making some tough tradeoffs. I do long-format edits all the time, and at some point I just bit the bullet and upgraded my Vimeo account to permit larger files. You might be in a similar situation?
All the best AG,
Stephen
Hi yet another... thank you for you reply. In the end Compressor 3 did get me down to the desired file size. But the end product was atrocious in terms of video quality. But my original QT H.264 file size is 56gb so I guess it is a big ask to compress down by 4500MB!
What would be your work flow to compress down my project? Export from FCP7 to Compressor? Or export from FCP7 as QT Movie. Then compress in Compressor? Oh, and the all import question - what settings would you use?
This is what I done:
The original project was shot on a Sony RX100 3, file format XAVCS 60P 50M. The person who shot it then converted it from MP4 to ProRes 422 from which I edited on FCP7. I imported the ProRes422 files into my FCP project. Would it have been better to have used the original XAVCS files and Log and Transferred them into the project as ProRes422LT?
Once I finished editing, I exported it as a QuickTime H.264, which gave me a file size of 56GB. I then had to attempt to compress this down to 500MB!
The person also wanted the file converted to ProRes422 HQ @ 25fps. So, from FCP I exported it to this format and got an end file size of 38GB. Surely the ProRes422HQ file should have given me a larger file size than the QuickTime H.264, shouldn't it?
In future, should I ask for files to be converted to ProRes422LT, which will give me a much smaller file size. And then if a ProRes422HQ is required I can export is accordingly?
Alpesh Gor wrote:
Once I finished editing, I exported it as a QuickTime H.264, which gave me a file size of 56GB. I then had to attempt to compress this down to 500MB!
The person also wanted the file converted to ProRes422 HQ @ 25fps. So, from FCP I exported it to this format and got an end file size of 38GB. Surely the ProRes422HQ file should have given me a larger file size than the QuickTime H.264, shouldn't it?
Yes, it will. Please double-check the codec pf the 56 GB file to verify.
Agree that you should be able to get a decent (certainly not atrocious) quality video @ 2.5 Mbps – assuming the source file is OK. If you would like to upload a very short section of your source clip to a file sharing service like Dropbox (or whatever you use) I'd be happy to download it to test how well it stands up under various compressions. If you do that, please select a section that did noticeably had compression problems after you ran it through Compressor.
Russ
Hi Russ, thank you very much for your kind offer. If I get permission to share a small clip I'll get in touch. Am I able to PM you on here with sharing details?
And the Codec for the Quicktime movie is: Apple ProRes 422, Linear PCM, Timecode. The file size came in at 54.56GB.
The Apple ProRes 422 (HQ), Linear PCM, Timecode came in at 34.92GB.
I always thought the PRHQ would have been the bigger file size.
Russ H wrote:
Yes, it will. Please double-check the codec pf the 56 GB file to verify.
… just to chime in…
That is the part fo the story which makes me stumble:
a h.264 of 30min, 1080/30p should be around 2-4GBs
56Gigs is most probably a proRes masterfile....
To compress it further down, 500MB, options are, reduce resolution to 720, and if it's just talking heads/less action, reduce the framerate to 15fps.
And do NOT resample audio to 44.1kHz! That's an audio standard (CD), video is 48kHz. What you CAN do is reducing the audio bitrate, e.g. 128kbps for stereo, or even 96kbps for mono ....
Finally, to squeeze the last grain of 'quality', consider usage of the free x.264 encoder, which is known for better results under low bitrate condidtion....
Hi Karsten,
Thank you for your reply. The 56GB file size is what is also confusing me. I exported it as a Quicktime H.264 movie but the Codec on Info is showing as ProRes 422.
Below is workflow. Did I do something wrong? I'm thinking whether I should have either asked for the XAVCS files and used Log and Transfer. Or even asked for ProRes 422 (LT) files, which I could then have Exported as ProRes 422 (HQ) for the final delivery.
* Imported all the clients ProRes422 1920 x 108060fps files into FCP7.
* Edited the project.
* Exported as Quicktime Movie at 25fps. And Exported at ProRes 422 (HQ) at 25fps.
* I also needed to give a 500MB file of the project, which I struggled with. But have since managed at 1280 x 720.
Edit: When Exporting as conversion, there is a settings tab for 'Size' (After the Video and Audio settings). If I want to export at 1920 x 1080 should I choose the Current option?
Alpesh Gor wrote:
… there is a settings tab for …
sorry, Alpesh, no clue of FinalCut before FCPX. I was the iMovieGuy, when FC/p7 was in use 😁
My advice was meant more generally... what buttons&knobs to push in your software to accomplish these settings... ? no idea.
But codec, resolution, framerate, bitrate - that's basics of ANY encoder... MpegStreamclip, Compressor, FC/p, FCPX ... just different color of buttons 😉
I need to move over to FCPX!
In the mean time, another question please - I exported the 26 minute film, which was shot at 60fps, from FCP to compressor and set it for ProRes422 HQ at 25fps.
The resulting video is now 1 hour 2 minutes. There is black video after the 26 minutes.
Is there a way to avoid the black space? I want the film to end straight after the end credits.
In the Inspector > Frame Controls, verify that Duration is set to 100% of Source (26 mins).
Russ
Compress a project to 500mb?
