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Question

Why are exported files sizes so huge?

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
February 28, 2022
3 replies
12535 views

Why whenever I export a video in Premiere pro the file size is huge. I could input a video that is 1mb, and the result will be 10mb or more. I know its because of the video and audio bitrate, but all I want to do is just add a little text to my video or retate it or change the color without interfering with the bitrate. Is there an option to match the settings of premiere pro to the settings of the settings video? Or maybe a plugin I can use?

A

Alexander28849771mydf

Participant

When you export a video in Premiere Pro, the file size can increase due to various factors, including the bitrate of the video and audio, the codec used, and the resolution of the output file. Adding text, rotating, or changing the color of the video can also contribute to an increase in file size, as these edits require rendering and may affect the overall quality of the video.

However, there are a few things you can do to help reduce the file size of your exported video:

Adjust the bitrate: When exporting your video, you can adjust the bitrate settings to match those of the original video file. This will help maintain the quality of the video while reducing the file size. In Premiere Pro, you can find the bitrate settings under the "Bitrate Encoding" section in the export settings.
Use a more efficient codec: Premiere Pro offers a range of codecs for exporting your video, some of which are more efficient than others. Consider using a codec like H.264, which is known for its high compression and smaller file sizes.
Lower the resolution: If you don't need to export your video in full HD, consider lowering the resolution to reduce the file size. You can find the resolution settings in the export settings under the "Video" section.
Use a third-party plugin: There are several third-party plugins available for Premiere Pro that can help optimize your video exports and reduce the file size. One example is the "ProRes RAW" plugin, which can help reduce the file size of your exports while maintaining high-quality video.

By making these adjustments, you can help reduce the file size of your exported video while maintaining the quality of your edits.

M

mark@headTrix

Community Expert

how are you exporting your videos? When you export, under Preset you can select "Match Source"and you can choose Medium bitrate which should lower your file size substantially. Video will also be smaller if you reduce the file export height and width. You can choose h264 and export as an Mp3

hope this helps
mark

headTrix, Inc. | Adobe Certified Training & Consulting

J

Julian23023339vaqmAuthor

Known Participant

The height and width is another story by itself. For videos, when I reduce the height and width, it doesnt change the size... at all. But for gifs it works. But this doesnt really explain why Premiere is bumping the sizes for no reason. I bet you I could run the same file through premiee over and over again and get a bigger file size. Why is premiere adding data for no reason?

M

mark@headTrix

Community Expert

Hi Mark, I think there is some confusion here about which of two kinds of video export we are discussing. But this nicely turns into a great teaching moment for the original poster.

The original post talked about exporting video in a general way, so I assumed that meant common video codecs. My earlier reply said “exporting to H.264” and within that context I’ll stand by what I said: If bitrate is not changed, reducing frame size or frame rate do not reduce file size significantly, and it definitely does not go down proportionally to the frame size or frame rate reduction.

I did a test again just now (earlier test was for a published article a while back), and for H.264 out of Adobe Media Encoder set to Match Source - High Bitrate (target 10Mbps, max 12 Mbps), these were the results:

1920 x 1080 pixels, 29.97 fps: 2.39GB

1920 x 1080 pixels, 10 fps: 2.39GB

640 x 360 pixels, 29.97 fps: 2.15GB

For H.264, it still works as I said. If you don’t change the target bitrate, frame size and frame rate changes won’t change the size very much, because the codec will increase quality to meet the target bitrate.

The secondary subject here is exporting to animated GIF. In that context, you are certainly right: Reducing frame size and frame rate totally makes a difference for animated GIF, so they are great ways to reduce exported file size of animated GIF. Bitrate is not an option for this format.

Hopefully Julian23023339vaqm understands now that file size reduction strategies for H.264 and animated GIF are quite different.

I'm not sure how you are testing. But ALL video no matter how its exported is bitmap based and made up of Pixels (picture elements) that contain RGB values for every single pixel. So if the image OR Video is 2 pixels by 2 pixels, you have 4 pixels of information to keep track of. And if the image or video is 1000 pixels x 1000 pixels you have 1 Million pixels of information to keep track of. So the more pixels, the more information, the larger the file size.

Not sure how you tested... but I did a test of H.264 one exported at 1080p and was 74.3 MB and then I exported a 2nd version changing the Height and Width (if you click Match Source it will Match the SOURCE Height and Width) to 924 x 520 and the file size is 26.2 MB. Screenshot below. You can see in the OUTPUT section under "Summary" that both videos are exactly the same aside from the Height & Width. And Results with file sizes are below.

So Animated GIFS and videos are not so far removed from each other. One has less frames, and lower resolution and is optimized to 256 colors or less (GIF) to make it even smaller in file size, but in essence its the same thing. For all intensive purposes Video is just like an animated GIF but with 30 frames per second, higher resolution, and 24 bit or higher compared to the GIF that is 8 bit or lower. Hence the reason GIFs are much smaller files and were used way before Video had the bandwidth to share it. But either way, reduce the size and you also reduce the. file size.

hope this helps.
mark

headTrix, Inc. | Adobe Certified Training & Consulting

Ann Bens

Community Expert

Filesize = bitrate x duration.

Much depends on codec used.

Post screenshot export settings.

After export Handbrake can help reduce your filesize.

J

Julian23023339vaqmAuthor

Known Participant

What about Gifs? Gifs have the same problem and gifs dont use any kind of bitrate that I know of. I exported a gif and wanted to add a watermark later, I didnt change any settings but the file gained 5mb. Where is this extra data coming from? Also why could Handbreak fix the proble but Premiere cant? What's the problem exactly? Im really annoyed I cant fix this problem.

Stan Jones

Community Expert

Julian,

This thread got my interest for the issue of file sizes of H.264 exports. Mark says, "reducing the height and width should surely reduce the file size," but that is not true unless something else is adjusted to reduce the datarate. The interframe compression of H.264 does not result in a collection of full frame pixels.

Some of this is semantics, because it is true that "reducing the height and width AND reducing datarate to achieve similar quality will reduce the file size."

Regarding your immediate issue with gifs, I recall issues with optimzing gif animations, but it is not my area. I just did a search for "filesize of gifs," and the sky is the limit. Yes, I get the same results you do with PR, a slighter smaller file size, but too large for the mission critical file size you have. Look for specialized tools. Conrad mentions gifksi. There are many and I know very little. Mark points out the advantages of using Photoshop, or any better tool for gifs.

Regarding the issue of reducing H.264 file sizes by reducing pixel dimensions.... When the export is a full frame of pixels for every frame, you can see how this might be true. But that is not how H.264 compression works which is interframe. Only the keyframes have the full image. The B frames and P frames do not contain the full frame. So fewer pixels are required. And for a given datarate, more pixels might be added to improve quality.

The more important issue is that the export with the same settings, "except for pixel dimension," specify a target (and if software encoding) maximum bitrate. So the encoder is going to use up to the maximum to achieve the target bitrate. And unless the reduction of dimension goes so far as to result in the encoder being unable to use the maximum and/or target, it will use all those pixels. So even with a reduction in dimension, the bitrate X duration will equal the filesize. Dimension is not part of the equation.

I got the same results Ann got, and I focus on the lines she circles regarding Bits/(Pixel*Frame). You can see that when using the larger pixel frame video, that amount is very small. To get the smaller file size, you must do something to reduce the datarate. There are many variables, and I suspect that Mark has some other difference in his settings.

Stan

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