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I'm currently starting work on a project where we are capturing footage from several different places around the country. All the footage gets sent to me. What I'm looking to do is set up a fairly automated workflow using watch folders and Adobe Media Encoder to export small file size outputs of the footage that we can make available for the rest of the team to preview. So those exported clips get saved to another folder that gets posted.
The goal is to take what we shoot (very large in file size and lengthy clips and therefore takes a lot of time to post back up) and be able to give a small reference view to others on our connected team.
I know this can be done and I've seen the steps to take to set this up with watch folders - BUT - I need assistance in choosing the right output settings that will give me a small file size video clip that is of a decent image quality and audio quality, something that is widely viewable format wise. Looking for ideas on export settings to choose for this goal?
Thanks, Will
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Hi Will,
There is unfortunately no single encoding formula that is suitable to everyone. What I would suggest is to choose "H.264" as the Format and then pick a Preset from the list and do a short encode and then check the result for both file size and quality. One minute is a good sample time, since you can then just multiply file size by minutes to know roughly how big a clip would be. There are a TON of presets under H.264, for instance various iPod and iPad settings, one of which you might find suitable to your needs. Make sure the frame rate matches, and 4:3 or 16:9 dimensions also. If you find a preset you like but want to further reduce file size, you can try lowering the bitrate and find the threshold of size/quality that you like.
Thanks
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers
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Jeff, Thanks for your reply on this. I'm going to take that advice and run the test and I'll see if any other answers come in with a setup that is working for them.