File size after "Produce" is much larger than the source file used to make the video

6StringJazzer

Newbie Joined: Dec 25, 2017 08:17 Messages: 9 Offline

Solved by

May 15, 2023 06:49

PowerDirector 14

I have a video file that I downloaded from Facebook that is 178MB. It is 45 minutes long. I trimmed it down to a 7-minute segment, added a simple title at the beginning and end, with fade transitions. After Produce using a setting of H.264 AVC at various resolutions , frame rate of 30, and a bitrate of 16Mbps, the resulting file is anywhere from 2 to 4 times as big as the original source.

In another thread it was explained that the bitrate drives the file size up. It was further explained that PD imposes a minimum to ensure some minimum level of file quality. One post said that "PD won't let you go any lower [than 1500] because normally that would result in such poor quality as to be unusable." But when I right-click on the video in the timeline and look at the spec, it's 768x432, 30 fps, and only 537kbps. The minimum bitrate for a default MP4 profile in PD is 16Mbps, and the minimum for a custom profile is 3Mpbs.

The quality of the original file is just fine at only 537. Far from unusable.

I don't see how PD could take a file with a bitrate of 537 and presume to increase the quality simply by upgrading the bitrate. You can 't add information that isn't there.

So I have two questions.

1) Why does PD have a default minimum even for a custom profile of 3000kbps when I have a perfectly good video at 537kbps?

2) Is there any way to produce this file with a quality comparable to the original, and get a resulting file size of a fraction of the original? This is a video of a band performance and I want to use it for promotion so I don't want to ask clients to download a 1GB file. (Personally I would load it to YouTube for streaming but the band leader likes to share the actual file.)

tomasc

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 25, 2011 12:33 Messages: 6464 Offline

May 15, 2023 08:55

1. This is a users group, not employed by CyberLink. You have to ask the developers that question. You should contact support.

2. PD14 does not have the newer tool so you only have the old tools to work with. Following the threads mentioned in your comments, I already posted how to achieve that with a converter.

Newer versions of PD have the Profile analyzer in which I use. I recall being able to edit and produce the screen recorder recordings at the original low bit rate of 447 kbps to post on this forum. See this screenshot from the past of a low bitrate PD screen recording. You may not need that converter to achieve this.


Filename	PD17 screen recording.png	Download
Description
Filesize	20 Kbytes
Downloaded:	1 time(s)

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

May 15, 2023 08:56

Quote PowerDirector 14

I have a video file that I downloaded from Facebook that is 178MB. It is 45 minutes long. I trimmed it down to a 7-minute segment, added a simple title at the beginning and end, with fade transitions. After Produce using a setting of H.264 AVC at various resolutions , frame rate of 30, and a bitrate of 16Mbps, the resulting file is anywhere from 2 to 4 times as big as the original source.

In another thread it was explained that the bitrate drives the file size up. It was further explained that PD imposes a minimum to ensure some minimum level of file quality. One post said that "PD won't let you go any lower [than 1500] because normally that would result in such poor quality as to be unusable." But when I right-click on the video in the timeline and look at the spec, it's 768x432, 30 fps, and only 537kbps. The minimum bitrate for a default MP4 profile in PD is 16Mbps, and the minimum for a custom profile is 3Mpbs.

The quality of the original file is just fine at only 537. Far from unusable.

I don't see how PD could take a file with a bitrate of 537 and presume to increase the quality simply by upgrading the bitrate. You can 't add information that isn't there.

So I have two questions.

1) Why does PD have a default minimum even for a custom profile of 3000kbps when I have a perfectly good video at 537kbps?

2) Is there any way to produce this file with a quality comparable to the original, and get a resulting file size of a fraction of the original? This is a video of a band performance and I want to use it for promotion so I don't want to ask clients to download a 1GB file. (Personally I would load it to YouTube for streaming but the band leader likes to share the actual file.)

Quality always in the eye of the user, so what one implies is poor, another may find acceptable. Especially when viewing on a 5.5" screen.

To do item (2), one would start by creating a custom profile in the "Produce" module with the "+" sign to create a new profile close to a base profile. Give it a name that's appropriate.
Using file explorer migrate to C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\CyberLink\PowerDirector\14.0 and open the Profile.ini file with Notepad. The folder is a hidden folder, so you will have to set windows to display it in file explorer. Find the details for the named profile you created.
Edit the following lines to match your source file
<Video BitRate>537000
<Min BitRate>537000
<Max BitRate>537000
<Video Quality>0
<Video Width>768
<Video Height>432
<Frame Rate>30.0

Relaunch PD and use this custom named profile from the dropdowns in the "Produce" module. Don't make any modifications to the profile in PD, simply produce the video with this custom named profile selected.

When creating such a profile, make sure to select the audio tab when you create the starting profile with the "+' to select what audio Kbps is appropriate for you. At such low video bitrate of 537Kpbs, audio content will become a large portion of overall file size.

Jeff