size of .swf file

[Biggest Daddy]

I made a full motion recording and the file size is awfully BIG.  Is there anything that can be done, post-recording, to reduce the size of the file.  I tried scaling down the publish output resolution from 800x600 to 70% of it's size, but, it did nothing with regards to file size.  Can I look anywhere else?  Is this again something that should have been considering before recording?

thanks

Jeff

[ScottPakis]

Hi Jeff,

Did you mess around with the compression settings? See attached screen shot. There's an option to compress full motion recording SWF file, JPEG quality settings.

Usually resizing captivate video is met with unpleasant results and isn't a good solution for reducing file size.

[austincookie]

1. make sure you have removed all unused items.
   1. open library
   2. select unused items (second icon from right)
   3. delete
2. change slide quality

[whattevva]

When you say "Full Motion Recording", does that mean it's basically a video, or do you have moments it stops (like in a PowerPoint presentation)? If full action video, you may have done better using a video editing software and saving out as an .FLV format that streams...

If created by importing a PowerPoint, there are many ways to reduce this as well - e.g. scaling images before importing into your PPT file, limiting animations, etc...

I'm just scratching the surface on this program myself, but I think much of the same thought processes apply here (in addition to the other advice you received)... hope that helps,

Jesse

[ScottPakis]

Full motion recording (FMR) is like a video exported into a .swf (not .flv). It's one of the recording options (after you press record choose the movie camera icon). To edit your video CP4 comes with the full motion editor. My advise is to record with extra frames, go into the FMR editor and remove the unused ones.

[ScottPakis]

I don't know if removing unused items will make the .swf smaller ... it doesn't in Flash it will just make the source file smaller. However it's a good idea to remove unused media.

[Lilybiri]

@Austincookie,

Sorry to interrupt, but deleting unwanted items from the library will not have any impact on the size of the published SWF at all. It can help to reduce the size of the CP-file alone. For me this is good practice, but no solution for the issue here.

Lilybiri

[niamhsile]

Could you reduce the size of the window you are recording and take the recording again? This will make it smaller where resizing the recording itself will not. Not that even if the application you are recording is not resizable the "snap to fit" option will force it to resize for your recording.

[ScottPakis]

Sounds doubtful. The only way would be to reduce the size of the capture area to insure smaller file size.

[niamhsile]

That's exactly what meant...  You'd hardly reduce the size of the window you were recording without reducing the capture area as well Sorry, prob could have phrased it a little better.

Basically, set the capture window to a smaller size and take the recording again. Tip: the "snap to fit" option will force applications to resize, even if they cannot be resized manually.

[Lilybiri]

Hello Jeff,

If you consider re-capturing, it should be good to ask if it is really necessary to make the whole project in FMR? Not only will this lead to huge file sizes but also limits the possibility for editing since you are ending up with a real video. Second consideration: which resolution do you really need. It is always better to capture at the wanted resolution than to have to rescale later on, rescaling almost always results in degrading the quality.

Just a few tips,

Lilybiri