How to compress to make movie file size smaller

sales3 wrote on 6/17/2014, 2:44 PM

Movie Edit Pro 15: How do I compress the video so the file size is smaller. It's really not that long of a movie but it's too long to e-mail. I might also like to export this to a thumb/flash drive as well. Can someone please tell me how to do this? Could you e-mail me a copy of your reply to                   : -)

 

Thank you

Comments

cpc000cpc wrote on 6/18/2014, 4:09 AM

sales3,

It's not possible to give any specific answer to your question because your question itself is very indefinite.

  • You provide no information about what you want for your output format, particularly pixel resolution. A 480 x 320 video clip will be certainly be much smaller than a full HD 1920x1080 clip.
  • Next you give no indication of when is required as to the 'quality'' of your output file. Generally grater compression is likely to reduce in some way the detail that can be maintained in your video.
  • Thirdly, MEP offers several formats of video output eg .avi, .mpg, .wmv etc, each with its own strengths and limitations.

Have you looked here (the 'Search' box to the right)   for 'compress' or 'compression'? There are hundreds of question and answers available.

Have you had a similar search under 'Help' from your MEP 15 program, or the PDF help file that come with your program?

Whatever, you will eventually be led to the options under the 'File' >> 'Export movie' >> Video as ...' where you choose the format, the pixel size and, depending of the format, other options which will affect the size of your output file.

Note: MEP is years old and has probably fewer choices than the more up to date versions.

Regards,

Carl

Sorry:

  1. Had not noticed your question with all the spam the board is getting.
  2. No e-mail copy. My address is not public'.

 

 

sales3 wrote on 6/18/2014, 10:32 AM

Thank you for your reply. My post doesn't include definite informaiton because I am new to the compression part of this. And was hoping someone would suggest some settings that could be used to compress a (now) 9 minute movie to a small enough file size to attach to an e-mail or possibly FB even.  The quality should be decent but does not need to be perfect. I have in the past searched and tried to find the information. It's been a while since I have searched for the information so I thought maybe it would be faster for me if I posted the question here because I would rather not have to begin a full on investigation as I have had to do with this software before. We realize the software is a few years old. I'm off to do some searching. Thanks again for your reply.

cpc000cpc wrote on 6/18/2014, 6:03 PM

sales3,

Ok, one step at a time...

Can you tell us what is the format you have (pixel size and file type eg avi or mpg) and just how big ( 1 Megabyte? 1 Gigabyte?) a file you are willing to e-mail. I'll see if I can duplicate your situation.

Also there is an age old method -- 'Suck it and see!' (refers to a kid asking whether a lolly is strawberry or cherry). I'd suggest starting with an export as MPEG and you'll get this window:

Do your export and see how big an output file you get. Then try some other setting, particularly pixel size (resolution), and make a comparison. Under the advanced' tab I'd suggest setting the quality to 15 but experiment with the 'bit rate' which will definitely affect file size. Keep a record of each result to guide you the best outcome.

Happy sucking! :-)

Carl