Compressed video export larger than original? Need smallest file size (under 500Mb)

Question

Why is my edited and exported video larger than the original? I have watched countless Adobe tutorials, read all the articles, scoured this forum for applicable feedback, watched videos from Premiere Gal and others outside of Adobe... I've tried for many 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 to upload to Vimeo which has a cap at 500Mb. (I get that we may have to upgrade our Vimeo account so that we can upload larger files, but we are a non-profit and are doing what we can to stay lean and spend only when needed). What is confusing to me is that the original is smaller than the output. The original is 624Mb downloaded from Zoom, after editing out 10 minutes or so and exporting the file, at the best I can get it, is 3252Mb. Why, and am I doing something wrong?

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)

I even googled to get another video editor but they are all expensive or Premier Pro pops up as their competitor. I tried Handbrake which an Adobe video tutorial said would compress it further, and it got it down to 560Mb, but the side edges clipped and it took a very long time to render so I haven't tried making an adjustment to the screen size.

So why is the edited and compressed video larger than the original? Am I doing something wrong? What adjustment do I make on Handbrake so that the sides of the video don't get clipped?

Richard van den Boogaard · Accepted Answer

A target bitrate of 10Mbit/s already is high quality.

Try lowering this in steps of 1Mbit/s, start off at 6Mbit/s.

Alternatively, you may decide to go for h.265 as your main codec, which should also be supported by Vimeo: Compression Guidelines on Vimeo

Hope this helps.

djd514 · Answer

If we're talking about editing a Zoom video......This is a great question, as I've run into this many time's before.

As a rule, I am generally shocked by how good Zoom videos relative to their length and small file sizes

Here's an example I've just come across. Someone gave me a Zoom video that was 1 hour and 20 minutes long that's 395 MB. What's crazy is I edited it to 56 minutes, and when I export, I find it nearly impossible to get it as small as the original. I did reduce the bit rate way down, and I got the file size close

The formula that was provided, File Size = Bitrate x Duration. is way too simplistic. File size is also determined by the file type, AVI would be much larger than MP4. But also keyframe distance, and most importantly, the CODEC. The only thing I'm wondering is what CODEC is Zoom using to get such great results?

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