Share to file size...?

Hey!

What's the best way to share a project with a file size limit? Let's say I want to keep it under 4gb?

Depends on the duration of the Project, and what the original media codec is.

… and on content (you can compress 5h of a plain blue screen into a MB ) , codec (we will soon see tons of h264 vs h265 comparisons), bitrates, audio settings , etc etc etc .....

Here's something to play with:
www.dr-lex.be/info-stuff/videocalc.html

DmitriZigany wrote: ...What's the best way to share a project with a file size limit? Let's say I want to keep it under 4gb?

Sharing directly from FCPX has limited options on codec, bit rate and resolution. However in most cases you can share a pretty big project, esp. if the intent is web upload. FCPX uses 12 megabits/sec for 720p to H264. That is about double the recommended Youtube bit rate, so quality is pretty good. That equates to roughly 45 minutes playing time.

720p can be very good quality, and everything ABC, Fox and ESPN shoots and broadcasts is solely 720p. The beautiful Hawaiian cinematography in the ABC TV series "Lost" was all 720p.

If you need more control, it's best to use Compressor which allows selective control over bit rate and encoding parameters. It will also predict before the export the resulting file size. You can then adjust the controls to stay within your desired limit.

H.264 food for thought:
A+V=141MB, Web=95.1MB, Computer=89.2MB, Apple Devices=51MB
Based on a 1 minute 1080/23.98 Timeline.

Thanks everyone!

Problem with Final Cut's size estimate is that it's always very wrong... usually the size is about 40% smaller that FCP estimates... But when I export this project for DVD, it's slightly bigger that the estimate...

This project is about 1h45m and they want to be able to burn it to DVD... it consists of 4K GoPro footage and some footage in 1080 from some Canon camera... So it takes me about 1h30m to export it...

I guess I have to export it to ProRes and then take it into compressor...

I find it usually spot on. Hhhmm... But I never export to DVD.

DmitriZigany wrote: …This project is about 1h45m and they want to be able to burn it to DVD... …..

… to FCPX' defence…
DVDauthoring is a rather complex process - audio and video have to be transcoded to antique mpeg2, than muxed, than authored. And: ~2h onto a single layer DVD-r demands VBR 'trickery' and very low bit-rates …

In the ol' iDVD days, it was recommended not to try to squeeze more than 60mn onto a homebrewn disk…

Just to make it clear:
It makes NO sense to make the export. e.g. as proRes or h264 from FCPX below 4GBs!!
The disk-authoring process contains a 'compressing' = transcoding and resizing process too.

Depending on what you use for authoring, a 123GB proRes file does fit onto a DVD-r!

FCPX.guru wrote: I find it usually spot on. Hhhmm... But I never export to DVD.

The export to DVD file estimate was almost spot on!

Both ProRes and h.264 are almost always 20-40% below FCPX's estimate for me...

Karsten Schlüter wrote: … to FCPX' defence…
DVDauthoring is a rather complex process - audio and video have to be transcoded to antique mpeg2, than muxed, than authored. And: ~2h onto a single layer DVD-r demands VBR 'trickery' and very low bit-rates …

Just to make it clear:
It makes NO sense to make the export. e.g. as proRes or h264 from FCPX below 4GBs!!
The disk-authoring process contains a 'compressing' = transcoding and resizing process too.

Yeah, I see no point either... trying to tell them to use dual layer... but they know nothing about technology (the 4K footage was shot at 12.5fps for example)...

And forget about DVD authoring... they want a below 4gb file... that's it.

I guess I have to spend another 1 1/2 hour exporting it to ProRes... [sigh]...

But a DVD question... (I haven't burnt a DVD in years...)

I have an LG external CD/DVD thing... looking at specs on their webpage it looks like it can burn dual layer, could that be so? Are home burnt dual layer reliable? Are the discs affordable? I thought I would never have to think about DVDs ever again haha

DmitriZigany wrote: … it can burn dual layer, could that be so? Are home burnt dual layer reliable? Are the discs affordable? …

possible, sure.
DL-DVD-r don't cost a fortune.
reliable …?
Never burnt one myself (my audience fell asleep beyond 10min of content) , but read a lot of complains, that some/many players (esp. standalone) get hiccups to play them. Technically there's some voodoo involved, to create a 'marker' in the data-stream, telling the player "and now to layer #2"-could work, could not.

4k with 12fps ... hmmm :dry:
and: a DVD 'fits' a 1/16th of resolution …
ever watched a home-made DVD on a 4k TV? :sick:

'Mastering' a good looking DVD is an art. And begins with superb sources, no 'compressed to death' stuff.....

Hi Dimitri
I still do a lot of distribution via optical disk. Most DVD R/W drives can burn DL disk (8.7GB) and I have not had any more issues with them than I do with single layer. Do note that write speeds are generally slower and it is really a good idea to manually burn at a slower rate anyway. Most players can read either.

Why did they shoot GoPro 4K when the delivery is going to be DVD? Even the GoPro's 1080 by 60fps setting would be so much better if you are also including 1080 footage. You really can't crop GoPro's 4K crud because it already is mostly a gimmick IMHO. So no reframing of a shot and the fisheye distortion when corrected also suffers visually. Maybe pass along some knowledge for next time.
OK enough rant, back to DVD and delivery.
First if a Blu-ray is a possibility, that would preserve the 1080 HD format. Of course you would need a BD RW drive in order to burn a BD. You can burn both BD and DVDs in Mac Finder.
See if you can delivery on a flash drive. Even USB2 can deliver 1080 bit rates. If you send on a flash drive, check what they will be viewing on. If viewing ONLY on a Mac then I would format to macOS extended. If not a Mac make sure to format the stick to either MS-DOS FAT32 if under 4GB or exFAT if more than 4GB. This is the most universal for various devices. FAT32 is limited to 4GB file size. Many TVs will now except USB but many do not read NTFS.
DVDs
DVD either single layer or dual layer has low resolution, (480 NTSC or 576? PAL) and limited bit delivery rates and really designed for 4X3 ratio. The DVD standard was amended to allow 16X9 and a slightly higher resolution, i.e. Apple's iDVD 16X9 formats.
That GoPro footage will really take a beating, and all will be highly compressed, and if they show it on a big screen, yuck yuck.
Still about 80% of people wanting optical disc ask for DVDs sometimes even if they have BD players and plasma screens, go figure :huh:
Hope this helps, Greg

Greg,

Why did they shoot GoPro 4K when the delivery is going to be DVD?

Well... Don't think that was the plan really. It's a fantastic circus show created twice a year, the DVDs are for the cast only, as a memory. The main purpose of the footage is for use in trailers to promote the show.
Still, I'm arguing with them that burning a DVD without adding chapters is really useless, because for people who's act is in the end, having to fast forward 1h30m to get to their act to show someone is rather pointless. Also, who the hell watches DVDs these days?

4K they shot with the intent of being able to crop... And it worked ok, considering it was 12.5fps to begin with haha

They know they have no clue about these things and realised they need to figure out better ways to do it next time...
Unfortunately I did audio (live mixing,music cues etc) for the show so couldn't film as well... Next time I might be on stage so we'll see how it goes

SInce this is basically a thing for friends I was looking for a fast way to give them the less than 4gb file they were asking for...