How do I get a smaller file?

masdoggydogg wrote on 11/21/2004, 8:32 PM
I have 2 minute film that I compiled from my DV camcorder. The MPG is ~60MB and I would like to get it to a (significantly) smaller file size.

What do I need to change? I've tried reducing the bitrate to 4M, tried creating smaller frames, but neither of those things seemed to make a difference.

I know I've seen much longer videos with much smaller file sizes...any help would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

cworld29 wrote on 11/21/2004, 11:07 PM
Have you considered rendering to a different format?
masdoggydogg wrote on 11/22/2004, 12:17 AM
I'd be open to suggestions.
Grazie wrote on 11/22/2004, 12:47 AM
Well .. . I just tried this in the Microsoft Movie Maker [MSMM]. .don't laugh! And yes you can do this in Vegs - I just don't have mny NLE machine fired up yet . so .. I wanted to get a response to you . . some figures from MSMM for the same 1:45 mins Sample

Avi: 372 mb [ PAL-DV ]

WMV: 27.8 mb [ High Quality ]

WMV: 6.667 mb [ For 512 Broad Band distribution]


Any good?

Grazie
Grazie wrote on 11/22/2004, 12:52 AM
masdoggydogg - tell me? Did you make an AVI first and then produce the MPEG? . .Not that it makes adifference, but if you are going to all the trouble of experimenting, it would be neat if you produced a finished AVI and don't then need to spend time redoing editted AVI to MEPEG straight formatting - yeah? If you had it already as the AVI then it is much qquicker . .and you wont loose the will to live while waiting for VEGAS to mpeg it! . . just a thought . .

Grazie
masdoggydogg wrote on 11/22/2004, 9:27 AM
Well I pulled AVIs from the DV, and then rendered to an MPEG.

The AVIs were several gigabytes though.
johnmeyer wrote on 11/22/2004, 10:10 AM
Rendering to a smaller bitrate WILL DEFINITELY produce a smaller file. If it didn't, then you didn't change the correct setting.

Click on Render As and then select the MPEG-2 format, and select the appropriate template. Then, select the Custom button. Go to the section where the bitrate can be changed. Do not change the maximum or minimum. It is the AVERAGE bitrate you want to change. 8,000,000 is the highest you want to go. If you set it to 4,000,000, the file size will be exactly half of what it is when you set it to 8,000,000, and so on. Video quality will of course decrease.

If you want really small file sizes, then you should use WMV or Realmedia, and set the bitrates to 256k or 512k. This gives you file sizes that are appropriate for posting on a web site or sending via email.
masdoggydogg wrote on 11/22/2004, 3:15 PM
Cool. Thanks.
Grazie wrote on 11/22/2004, 3:25 PM
John, thanks for adding the necssary detail . . . of course you're spot-on,

Grazie