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david@harveywetdog
david@harveywetdog
Inspiring
January 28, 2019
Answered

Why is 4K video file size reduced?

  • January 28, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 3689 views

I am running Premiere Pro 2019 on a new HP Envy 4K All in one pc. As a trial I exported a project using the "High Quality 2160p 4K" setting with an Estimated File Size of 12103 MB. I exported the file to the PC internal memory and the file size is only 2.22GB. It looks great but how is the difference explained? When I exported it to an external hard drive it was not reduced - although it took a long time!

As I generally export for YouTube using "YouTube 2160p 4K Ultra HD" will the reduction in file size affect the quality of the output on YouTube?

Thanks in advance 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer david@harveywetdog

Are both drives formatted ntfs?


I think I'm sending it to the wrong drive on the pc. one is 2TB HDD (D) and one is 256GB SSD (C) so I'll stick to the 2TB HDD. The external drive (G) is 10TB HDD

2 replies

fabiend21956081
fabiend21956081
Participant
July 31, 2019

Ok... look, people that have no idea of the solution, even being a certified adobe community professionnal, should really just not give false answers, because it gets more confusing.

It has nothing to do with the drives! David didnt speak about the time it takes to export but the file size!

David, the reason is: you are encoding with VBR 1 pass at 80 Mbps. VBR means variable bit rate.

Which means: the bitrate will vary up to a maximum of 80 Mbps depending of what the computer estimate it needs of bitrate while exporting. At the end you can very much end with a file at 20 or 30 Mbps, thus the file size is smaller than the estimated file size that is calculated for 80 Mbps. You can check the bitrate of your exported file by right-click Properties - Details.

Now the solution: if you want your export to be at 80 Mbps, select CBR = constant bitrate, at 80 Mbps.

Have a nice day

    fabiend21956081
    fabiend21956081
    Participant
    December 4, 2019

    well actually, a CBR export of 80 Mbps gives me sometimes smaller file sizes than VBR1 80 Mbps. It's not logical. Like the estimated file size is 1200MB for some project, I end up with a 340MB at VBR1 80 and 280 MB at CBR 80! Makes no sense to me.

    But with VBR2 at 80 Mbps there I get the 1200MB as estimated. Whatever Premiere 😃

    Ann Bens
    Community Expert
    Ann BensCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 28, 2019

    Exporting to a external drive will take longer then export to an internal drives as transfer rate is usually better.

    Unfortunately Youtube re-encodes.

    Estimated file size is what it is: an estimate.

    david@harveywetdog
    david@harveywetdogAuthor
    Inspiring
    January 28, 2019

    Ann Bens thank you for your response but that hasn't really answered my question. I understand what you say about estimates but I can't believe it can be a factor of 6 out. There appears to be some sort of compression occurring when I save to the PC which doesn't occur when I save to the external drive; that file was 12GB. I can't work out if it is a PC setting or a Premiere Pro setting.

    david@harveywetdog
    david@harveywetdogAuthor
    Inspiring
    January 28, 2019

    They are both identical.

    Post screenshot properties of both export files.

    MediaInfo windows


    One is output to C and one is output to G but yes apart from that they are identical

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