best render settings to make videos smaller

[sarau19023761]

I have researched online and tried countless variations of render settings to make my videos smaller (under 500MB) but none of them work. This is an issue I am having for videos that are 1 hour long as well as videos that are 7 minutes long. Can anyone help me please?

Thank you!

Sara

[shooternz]

File size is determined by bit rate settings alone. ie when you export

Exported Image Quality is controlled by bit rate settings and codec choice..

[sarau19023761]

Thank you shooternz. Can you share with me the best bit rate settings and codec choice. Possibly screenshots? I'm not sure I'm doing it properly.

Thanks!

[Kristian Gabriel]

Yeah, render settings are a minefield of crazy. Are you checking each one of these?

• File Format + Codec
• Pixel dimensions
• Render at max quality
• Frame rate
• Keyframing Method
• Bitrate (Constant or Variable) - Directly lowers file size (effects quality)
• Buffer size
• Audio sample rate
• 64 vs 32 bit encoding
• Hardware encoding

All of these thing make a epic difference across endless combinations. Obviously H.264 and H.265 codecs are made to produce a higher quality file at lower file sizes than most Quicktime files. 500mb for an hour of high quality footage is not bad at all. How small do your files need to be? Could you give us more information about your media and workflow? 

[sarau19023761]

Hi Kristian Gabriel,

I have an hour long video that is over 66 million KB. I have tried exporting it with a number of different settings to try and get it under 500MB and nothing works. Nothing has even come close. Looking at your list, there are some things I have set up (based on different export suggestions from other sites and youtube video suggestions), but not all of them. I am new to exporting video so I'm not sure what you are asking for with regard to my workflow.

[Ann Bens]

number of different settings

Such as...

[sarau19023761]

Well I've tried Windows Media and nothing I do there works. I've tried the typical YouTube/Vimeo settings like using the H.264 format and adjusting the various settings under that format and none of those seem to work either.

[shooternz]

Sara

There is no one size fits all.... but you need to consider some things.

What is the final purpose of the film?  ie where is it to be shown, how is to be shown and how do you deliver it

Points to note.

It is very difficult to get any quality into one  hours program under 500MBs.

( I just exported 25 music videos of approx 3.5 minutes each and they were all around 500MBs each but the quality was pretty good too.)

Exporting to a file size is a bit trial and error.  Trading file size and quality issues til one is happy.

H264 is a good go to for most purposes.

[sarau19023761]

Thank you shooternz. These are simple videos filmed using your basic camcorder (yep, a little oldschool). There is nothing fancy about them as they are video recordings of a teammate teaching a "class" at work. I would like to upload this video into our Learning Management System (LMS), which is called Brainshark, so that everyone in our organization can view them at any time. However, Brainshark will not allow us to upload a video larger than 500MB. So I am stuck with the arduous task of trying to figure out a way to export it in a way that doesn't lose all the quality but shrinks it down so we can get it into Brainshark.

[shooternz]

Seeing as you have the restrictuion set by the delivery method.. 500MB is not well suited to video content.  The IT people maybe able to overcome that. Ask them.

Break your videos down to shorter more pertinent durations.  Who is going to watch 1 hour in one burst so a series of 4 by 15 mins eg.

[excited_Genie16B8]

Think of it this way, Sara.

1. High quality.

2. Small file.

3. Long duration.

You can have only two of those for any given video.  If the LMS demands item 2, then you can add either 1 or 3, but not both.

[Kristian Gabriel]

So 66 million would be 66 gigabytes--seems high for a file. Would the number be 660,000kb (660megabytes) or 66,000kb (66megabytes)? Where are you deliverying this file? Here are some possible settings to get a file size down:

I would definitely try and use H.264 for its small size and universal adoption. Try to reduce the size of your frame as well. Getting your 1hr even around 500mb is considered pretty good. Going below that mark--reduce the bitrate and try to reduce from size--like typing 854 in the width part of your movie. You can try to reduce using these 16:9 frame sizes:

480p: 854x480

360p: 640x360

Then reduce the Bitrate to around 1 or 2 megabits (1,000 or 2,000kb). I would not be using Quicktime.

[jodil36681556]

Thanks Kristian,

But I too am still having similar issues. I have watched countless Adobe tutorials, read all the articles and tried for hours to get my almost 2 hour video down to 500Mb. I know, 2 hours is asking a lot (it is a classroom module), and I am willing to break it up into several segments, but what is confusing to me is that the original is smaller than the output. The original is 624Mb downloaded from Zoom, after editing 20 minutes or so and exporting the file, at the best I can get it, is 3252Mb. Why does it have to get bigger??!

Here's what I've tried:

format: H.264,

preset: i've tried high bitriate, low bitrate and Vimeo1080p (i need this on Vimeo for under 500Mb)

bitrate: VBR, 1 pass and 2 pass

target bitrate: 16, 20 and 10

max bitrate: 20 and 10

not rendered at maximum depth

unchecking all of the lower (max render qual, use previews, etc)

So my real question is, why is the compressed video larger than the original?

[excited_Genie16B8]

Why does it have to get bigger??!

It doesn't have to.  It does because you're using a higher bitrate in the export than was used for the original.

[tsternig]

I use a tool called, "HandBrake" to drop file sizes of rendered videos and it works like a charm. You can barely tell the difference in the video's quality after using, "HandBrake" to optimize the video to smaller file size, and it really reduces the file's weight considerably...