Newbie needs help reducing file size of video

DrewDrew

Newbie Joined: May 20, 2014 21:45 Messages: 1 Offline

Solved by

May 20, 2014 21:55

Hey there!

I'm pretty new to this video editing thing, which is kind of exciting because there's heaps for me to learn, but I'm struggling with one thing that is kind of important for how I want to use my videos.

I'm an actor and I mostly use PowerDirector to edit video auditions that I need to send off to casting directors around the world. Most of my auditions are about 3 minutes long, but their file sizes are pretty high - 200MB. I need to get them much lower with as little compromise to quality as possible. I've tried clicking on every butting in the 'produce' step of the editing suite, but nothing is solving my problem.

Any help?

Cheers, Drew

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

May 20, 2014 23:29

Quote: I need to send off to casting directors around the world. Most of my auditions are about 3 minutes long,

The smallest files are WMV.

The factor that makes for large files is mainly the Bit Rate of the encoding.

The second factor is resolution.

Depending on the quality of video you want to Sent to Directors, you can send lower bit rate and lower resolution.

PD has several lower quality WMV profiles.
The lowest quality is 320x240/30p (300Kbps).
I would think you would at least send SD quality Video.
720x480/30p (1.6 Mbps)

I suggest that you take one of your 3 minute auditions and try different productions to see which ones give the results you want.
A compromise between file size and quality.

There is also third party software that is good at compressing video to smaller sizes.

Another thing you can do is get a Youtube account, upload high Definition Video.
Then you can simply send a URL to the video on Youtube.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at May 20. 2014 23:33

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Daniel.Saxer

Newbie Location: Argentina Joined: Apr 06, 2014 23:08 Messages: 30 Offline

May 21, 2014 17:45

thats true
I will recomend to reduce the resolution if you reduce to much the Bit Rate, because less bit rate is less data to show, so... it will look better in smaller size than big one Daniel Saxer
Asus GT750
i74700 2.4 + GTX770M + 16Gb ram

Jimbo223

Member Joined: Apr 25, 2012 02:59 Messages: 95 Offline

May 24, 2014 06:38

I'd recommend reducing the audio bit rates first.
If your film is mainly dialogue then start at an audio bit rate of 64kbps and adjust up.
If you have music or sound effect which need a wider spectrum, start at 128Kbps and adjust up.

I would compromise audio quality over image quality if you can and watch your file size shrink.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at May 24. 2014 06:39