Quicktime Pro not compressing video

Why am I the only one who ever has these problems?

I am using FCP Studio 3 on MacPro Late 2008, 10.6.4.
I go to export my video (1440x1080) 11 minutes in length thru QT Conversion like I always do using the h.264 compression but for some reason its not actually compressing the video. It completes export fine but file size is around 6 gigs no matter what quality I adjust to. So I reopen in QT Pro directly and try that way, same thing happens, I even try going thru compressor no difference.

I open the info window with in QT Pro and it says it is using the h.264 codec. But its like its using an uncompressed codec and saying its using h.264.

Anybody got any ideas?

An eleven-minute file of six gigabytes' extent would have a data rate of around 72 megabits. So clearly your timeline is being compressed.

What is your target data rate? What data rate did you tell QuickTime to use?

I understand what your saying but when using h.264 this file should not be more than 500 megs at the most. Its acting like i'm using prores or animation as the codec.

I didn't specify a certain data rate. I just adjust the quality slider anywhere from medium to best, then choose single of double pass, and then change the audio to AAC Stereo.

I'm a video editor for a marketing agency and I compress videos everyday of this length and more so I'm very familiar with the process and what the end file size should be.

Well duh you got a relatively high data rate then. You told the encoder to give you the absolute best possible picture quality and spare no expense.

If you want to hit a target data rate, you have to key in that target data rate. For 1080p, a good guideline is 8-10 megabits. For 720p, you can get away with anything from about 2 megabits to about 6, depending on the material and how picky you are.

> I'm a video editor for a marketing agency and I compress videos everyday of this length

I find that hard to believe! You've been doing this a while but never controlled the bit rate yourself? You need to do so; those presets are way too general and it's part of your job to figure out what settings to use. H.264 videos should look pretty decent even at 2000kbps. Plus you have to think about whether your targeted audience has the bandwidth to play them back properly. I'd imagine a 6GB H.264 file would grind many systems to a halt, be too big for streaming, download or e-mail, and is in the awkward twilight zone between compressed, portable video and large, unwieldy, full-quality video.

Use MPEG-4 rather than QuickTime movie. With the same codec (H.264), you get a smaller file. You can also consider using MPEG Streamclip for the encode. It shows you the target file size at the current settings before you actually have to wait for the encode to get done. MPEG Streamclip can process batch lists like Compressor (ie. enter more than one task at a time and they'll queue up), plus it can save presets easily so that when you find a combination of settings you like, you can call them back up with two button presses.


www.derekmok.com

I agree. MPEG Streamclip MP4 using H.264 is the bomb. We do 50fps @ 3000 and they are lovely to look at as well as send.