Match the iPhone compression with PPro

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
May 17, 2023
2 replies
668 views

Thought this would be easy, but I’m missing something obvious.

My overall goal is to reduce the filesize of a video to <25MB so that it can be emailed.

Original file is 68MB from an iPhone14.

Drop it into Premiere, halve the screen resolution as a starting point (knowing with compression it isn’t strictly going to provide a file 25% of the size). Use the HEVC format (since that is what the iphone used) and export. It explodes to 302MB.

The iphone is quicktime and premiere output an mp4, but I’d think the codecs would be the most important component. So, I set Premiere to Quicktime which defaults to Apple ProRes 422HQ (and using HEVC is not an option for the video codec) -> 722MB.

I’m curious what setting I would use to have it re-create (roughly) the same file size that the iphone generated. From there, I can try other ways to reduce the file size but I’m going in the wrong direction with essentially no changes, just re-encoding the base file.

I'm using a Mac (but I have access to a PC).

Thoughts?

This topic has been closed for replies.

Warren Heaton

Community Expert

Since source video recorded in High Efficiency format or Most Compatible format on an iPhone uses a variable frame rate, it can be nearly impossible to match the small files size when exporting the files after being edited in any video editing application.

It can also be excessively challenging to squeeze a video clip down to 25MB under any circumstances. Getting below 25MB isn't the hard part, getting below that and having good picture quality is.

Have you considered sharing the video via a FrameIO branded presetnation page? FrameIO is included with Premiere Pro. Switch to the Review Workspace (Window > Workspaces > Review) to bring up the FrameIO panel and sign in with the same Adobe ID used to sign in to Creative Cloud Desktop. If you've already exported the clip (ProRes, H264, or H265) you can also log into FrameIO via your web browser using your Adobe ID to login.

The FrameIO presentation link can be with or without download enabled and can be sent via the FrameIO user interface or you can copy and paste the link to an email message. I usually include a phrase like "Please view the video via this presentation link with download enabled: ________."

For smooth and reliable editing with good performance, ProRes is definitely the way to go. ProRes is a fantastic mezzanine CODEC and supports Smart Rendering.

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PaulstinAuthor

Participating Frequently

I appreciate the insight on how the phone achieves such a low file size. I'll check out the FrameIO link, so thanks for that. I will say that the video quality is not too important as I'm just trying to show a person a problem I'm having with an installation.

Averdahl

Community Expert

Don´t change the resolution. What you are looking for is to set the bitrate upon export to the same, or less, bitrate that the phone delivers. The bitrate is what makes a file small or large, not the resolution.

Use the free app MediaInfo (mediaarea.net) to find out the bitrate from the phone.

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PaulstinAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks for the pointer on bitrate.

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