Best compression technique. iMovie HD 5 to QuickTime Pro to Web?

Hi, I'm a video novice I think. But can you please tell me the best way to reduce an 12GB 'iMovie HD 5 project', for web? I used to have a .Mac account where for some strange reason Apple could manage to get my movie compressed down to about 300k the .Mac Homepage? When I attempt to compress this 'iMovie project' myself and utilsing QuickTime Pro also, the smallest file size I get is about 50MB. This is even after saving as a QuickTime Streaming File at 56k.
Many thanks,
Christian Macey

Welcome to the forum, Christian.
First, note that although the iMovie project may be 12 GB, that probably includes material that's not included in the exported movie. The size of the project may be irrelevant. It's the duration of the movie that counts.
The 312k movie sounds like the small reference movie that iMovie creates inside the project. It contains no video and audio of its own, just pointers to the files in the Media folder of the project. That's why it is so small. It cannot play the movie without your files being present. (So you can't send it to someone, inviting as that is.)
QuickTime offers many different codecs (compressors/decompressors) to compress a movie. The best codec today is the H.264 codec, first introduced with QuickTime 7. It delivers astonishingly good quality at a very low data rate. Note, however, that the person playing your movie must have QuickTime 7 installed on their computer.
The level of compression and movie dimension you want depends on your goal for the movie. In the Export (Share) dialog box, choose the QuickTime > Expert setting, then choose MPEG-4 from the top popUp menu and one of the pre-sets from the bottom popUp menu. The Option button lets you tweak any of those.
You will want to experiment with a small clip, not the whole project, for it takes a long time to compress a long project. (Note the checkbox to export just the selected clips in the Export dialog. Do that.)
When the test clip delivers the size/quality you want, that's the setting to use for the entire project.
Karl

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In QuickTime Pro (v7.6.2) Error message: Failed: qtKitErrorCatchAll(-2125)

G'day everyone,
I made a video project in iMovie '09. My intention is to burn this video at the end on a DVD to watch it via a wide screen TV.
What did I do? (reference to: David Glover "Creating higher -quality HD video with iMovie '09")
1. I exported the video, using QuickTime, to the "Apple Intermediate Codec" at the full 1920x1080 size.
Therefore I chose "Export using QuickTime" in the Share menu of iMovie. etc. etc.
2. Than I had to deinterlace the video with the JES Deinterlacer.
3. The last step to perform was to compress and scale the video with QuickTime Pro.
During this last step I got (after about three hours! and having done already about 80% of the process) the message: Failed: qtKitErrorCatchAll(-2125)
Needless to write perhaps, very frustrating, because it took 2h15' for step 1, 1h10' for step 2 and step 3 about three hours and than having the message as mentioned above!
Very much appreciated if someone can help me out!
with Light
Gert de Wilde
[email protected]

Much appreciated your quick reaction QuickTimeKirk.
if there is another way to produce a fine DVD after using iMovie to create a video project please let us know!
We make a lot of video footage around Australia from now on and we are looking for a method to produce from every journey a DVD which we (and our friends and relatives) can watch via TV.
The camcorder we use is: Sony Handycam Super Steady Shot HDR-SR11 1920x1080i HD recording
Have a look at our private website: http://web.me.com/gertdewilde/ReflectionsofAustralia/Welcome.html
To answer your question:
We started with an iMovie project.
In step 1 we selected the full 1920x1080 size
Format: Integer (Little Endian)
Sample rate: 48.000 kHz (Recommended)
Sample size: 16-bit
Channels: Stereo (L R)
In step 2 we selected the Block match threshold: 300, Gamma 2.22
In step 3 we chose "Movie to MPEG-4", Video format H.264 Data Rate:16200, Image Size 1920x1080 HD,
Under H.264 Video Options we chose Restrict Profile(s) to Main en Encoding Mode to Faster encode (single-pass)
In the streaming tab we turned off "Enable streaming"
I hope this the info you want to give us a helping hand!
with Light
Gert de Wilde

Quicktime Pro, am I entitled to it?

I use Footlights for all of my movie playback and I absolutely hate it. I have Quicktime, but refuse to buy Quicktime Pro simply for full screen playback. It seems a little stupid to me, I have iLife and doesn't iMovie do everything that Quicktime Pro does?
Shouldn't Quicktime Pro come with iLife, I can't figure out how to unlock the Pro features. If not, is there a way to make Footlights my default movie player for all movie files?

I use Footlights for all of my movie playback and I absolutely hate it. I have Quicktime, but refuse to buy Quicktime Pro simply for full screen playback.I find it strange that you use a program you hate and then complain about it. Must admit that I haven't tried Footlights since I use iTunes as my Multimedia, iPod and, hopefully in Q1 of 2007, an "iTV" manager application and it already offers full screen playback.
It seems a little stupid to me, I have iLife and doesn't iMovie do everything that Quicktime Pro does?Yes, that is true. However, I do use QT Pro for other purposes such as elementary editing where a "full blown" editor is a waste of time or I don't care to perform multiple conversions through the DV format in order to use frame level editors.
Shouldn't Quicktime Pro come with iLife, I can't figure out how to unlock the Pro features.Let's not give Apple any ideas here. They may just turn around and exclude the QT Player from the System software and make you buy it a a part of iLife every year.
If not, is there a way to make Footlights my default movie player for all movie files?As I indicated, I have not used Flootlights so I don't know how its player is integrated into the application. But yes, you can set Foolights to be the "Open With..." application by highlighting the various movie file types and opening them with the Finder "Get Info" to reset their opening application default for all files of that type. Whether or not this will open the file in Footlights' player module is something you will have to determine then post back here.
EDITED: Once again, you were just too fast for me, Kirk.

Best compression for exporting large files from iMovie for use in iDVD?

I have a doco that I've made as separate projects too slow to make it all in one project - which I then exported as Quicktime .mov files. When I assembled the .mov files in iDVD I ended up with 4.7GB of material which iDVD flipped out on and crashed.
What would be the best compression to apply to the large .mov files but reduce the overall file sizes by say 10%
Its sometimes taking up to 6 hours to render each project average total screentime per project is about 70 minutes and each project file size ranges from 1 to 6GB...
I feel like I'm a little out of my depth on this one!
Any suggestions for this dilemma?
Thanks
Tony

When I assembled the .mov files in iDVD I ended up with 4.7GB of material which iDVD flipped out on and crashed... Any suggestions for this dilemma?
Not sure if your 4.7GB reference is for the source files or the resulting "muxed" MPEG2/PCM encoded content. In any case a single layer DVD is limited to 4.7 GBs of total content. To be safe, this usually means you are limited to 4.2 to 4.3 GB of encoded movie and/or slideshow content depending on how many and what type of menus you are creating created. Thus, if you are encoding for a single-layer DVD and your project encoded content exceeds the capacity of your DVD, then this would likely explain your problem.
If your project size reference is for the source content being added to your iDVD project, then it is totally irrelevant and you need to concentrate on the total duration of your iDVD and the method of encoding instead of file size. Basically, for a single-layer DVD, only about 60 minutes content can be encoded using the "Best Performance" encode option, 90 minutes using the "High Quality" setting, or 2 hours in the "Professional Quality" encode mode. Thus, if your content duration exceeds the capacity of your encoding mode here, it would likely explain your problem.
In either case, the solution would be to either burn to higher capacity optical media/higher capacity encoding mode or burn your content to multiple DVDs as individual projects at the current media capacity/encoding mode.

Best compressed format to send a iMovie project

I need to send a 15' project to another computer.
What is the best compressed format to save a project as a small with "good" resolution file, to send and open on another computer?
Thanks

ok!
I personally prefer mpeg4 best combo if size+quality, choose the smallest res your video needs (no titles? make it smaller!), 15fps is maybe "fast" enough, make it mono, not more then 15Khz audio...(do you need audio anyhow?)
but 15 minutes? that will result in a file, you probably can not send/receive by mail, because of limitation of attached file size... but there are some free services for laaarge files as yousendit.com etc.
you don't own a website/.mac account?

What is the best export setting from QuickTime Pro 7 for standard DVD

I have several AVI movies I took and want to import them into iMovie, so I can create a DVD that will play in any DVD player or computer. (Along with a bunch of pictures.)
Should I convert them with QuickTime Pro 7 (QTP7) to another format, and if so, what is the best export setting.
I have export them using *_QuickTime 10_* and QTP7 to *MOV, MP4, & M4V* and the output is *+bad bad bad+*.
I have tried both export and save-as. Neither has done a good job.
The internal information of the AVI movies are: (as reported by QT)
Format: Apple OpenDML JPEG, 640 x 480, Millions, 8-bit Unsigned Integer, Mono, 11.024 kHz
I have used several settings with not much luck including:
AAC, Stereo (L R), 44.100 kHz, MPEG-4 (Perian), 640 x 480, Millions
MPEG-4 Video, H.264
Should I be using a better application then QuickTime?
Is there a way to just use iDVD with the original AVI movies?
These are wedding movies and pictures that people are waiting for.

Should I convert them with QuickTime Pro 7 (QTP7) to another format, and if so, what is the best export setting.
That depends on your specific work flow and the codec(s) involved. Generally speaking, if the file plays in the QT Player and is "conversion" compatible, then the file can be added directly to iDVD (i.e., unlike iMovie '08/'09/'11 which requires the file to be "edit" compatible with QT).
I have export them using QuickTime 10 and QTP7 to MOV, MP4, & M4V and the output is bad bad bad.
The quality of your output file will depend on a number of things: primarily the quality of your source file, the efficiency of the target codec, and the specific settings used. (About which you did not elaborate.) The rule of thumb here is that your output will never be better than your input and each re-comprssion of the data has the potential to degrade the quality to some degree.
I have tried both export and save-as. Neither has done a good job.
The "Export" option re-compresses the data while the "Save As..." option only places the original data in an MOV file container. So if this output is "bad, bad, bad," then I suspect your source file(s) are not of high quality to begin with. (This seems to be confirmed by the very low audio sampling rate which implies the video data rate was probably also low to conserve file storage space.)
The internal information of the AVI movies are: (as reported by QT)... Format: Apple OpenDML JPEG, 640 x 480, Millions, 8-bit Unsigned Integer, Mono, 11.024 kHz
The basic codecs here appear to be both playback and conversion compatitible with QT (other than the very low sampling rate which some QT apps may not like). Thus, if your work flow is to simply burn DVDs that can be played on commercial players, the AVI could most likely be dropped to iDVD for authoring. On the other hand, if you are editing in a recent version of iMovie, then that app may not like the AVI file container. In this case, the best quality you can likely expect would be to use the "Save As..." option to place the data in an MOV file container and import to iMovie.
Unfortunately, editing in iMovie '08/'09/'11 is done "by reference" which means your output file will be created by exporting the impoted source data to another compression format. The default would be H.264/AAC which is a highly compressed format which in turn would be re-compressed again by iDVD to multiplexed MPEG2/PCM content further reducing quality by using a less efficient video codec. My recommendation for export from iMovie in this case would be AIC/Linear PCM. (I.e., to export your edits to the Apple intermediat video codec using the original file size and frame rate with just a bit of "sharpening" and using 16-bit/48 kHz Linear PCM audio (which is what will be used to create the DVD).
Should I be using a better application then QuickTime?
How much are you willing to spend?
Is there a way to just use iDVD with the original AVI movies?
Yes. Simply create a new SD project, select your theme, drop the compatible AVI content to the appropriate "drop" area(s), add photos as desired, preview the results, and author the DVD if/when satisfied.

Best Quality for IMOVIE

So I am creating my titles to be used in Imovie but when I export to DV format, the quality is not the best. I also tried MPEG 4 and not the best. What is the recommended setting to use when the title will end up in Imovie? Any help appreciated. Thanks

No idea, frankly, 'cos I never used it, but it should swallow any Quicktime file. Therefore I would assume Animation or PNG CoDec should do the trick. From what I gather, your problem is that basically you introduce 2 levels of compression, as iMovie seems to re-render everything again, even if it is already in a suitable CoDec and format.
Mylenium

Best compression for iDVD authoring and DVD playback?

I have some DV footage that I had captured into MPEG-2 files on my old PC, then recently got a Mac and I want to be able to edit the footage on the Mac software I have and put it onto DVD for standard playback on a TV.
I've got the latest Quicktime Pro with the MPEG-2 playback component, and MPEG Streamline that allows me to convert the MPEG-2 files into MOV files. I want to be able to edit them in iMovie and Final Cut Express, and then I want to drop them into iDVD.
I would like to know what the best compression to use would be in converting the MPEG-2 files into MOV files or other format that's compatible with iMovie and Final Cut Express that will result in the best quality for DVD playback. I don't have Final Cut Pro so I don't have Compressor, which I understand, already has a preset compression optimized for DVD authoring and playback later on.

So you have some already mpg-2 compressed files you want to edit in FCE. Using MPEG Streamclip, I suggest you convert them to DV video (which runs about 13 GB per hour) to work on them in FCE.
As far as recompressing the edited video, I really doubt the mpg-2 encoding mode used will make much difference since you took the real quality hit when you initially mpg-2 compressed to content.
If you want to take the additional time required, you can try the new 'Professional Encoding' option in iDVD 7, but I seriously doubt it will improve anything. (You know the old 'silk purse out of a sow's ear' thing...)

Will Quicktime Pro convert/compress .dv files to Quicktime?

I have .dv movies that are taking up so much space on my hard-drive. I purchased Quicktime Pro to compress those files so they will take up less space. I don't see in the tutorial how to do this. Could someone please point me in the right direction so I can see how to do this? Thanks!

Will Quicktime Pro convert/compress .dv files to Quicktime?
Of course.
I don't see in the tutorial how to do this. Could someone please point me in the right direction so I can see how to do this?
This is impossible to do until you define what you mean by "QuickTime."
Basically, a "QuickTime" (MOV) file is any form of dat that can be placed in an MOV file container -- not a compression format in and of itself. Therefore, your first step is to determine what you really want to do here. For instance, a DV (.dv) stream file normally consists of an audio DV compressed track along with a video DV compressed track. DV(25) files normally contain audio and video tracks having a data rate on the order of 28.5 Mbps each (or about a 57 Mbps total average data rate). As you indicated, these do make for rather large files. You could, of course, reduce the total data rate by nearly half if you merge the original video track with AIFF (linear PCM) converted audio (or even smaller if you use an AAC audio track). The catch here is that QT Pro does not have a DV "pass thorough" video option which allows you to simply convert the audio while retaining the original DV video. So unless you are willing to manually convert the audio track and then manually replace the original Audio track with your converted audio, you would normally have to convert both audio and video to another compression format.
In this latter case, you could select any valid codec supported by QT as augmented by installed components. Typical possibilities would be AIC/AIFF, unlimited H.264/AAC, Motion-JPEG/AIFF Photo-JPEG/AIFF, supported MPEG4/AAC or H.264/AAC profiles with limited data rates. These compression options are all compatible with iMovie '08 editing and represent a full range of possible data rates (which in turn determine your final file size). For instance, an AIC/AIFF file would normally end up with a total data rate on the order of 20-22 Mbps with an unlimited H.264/AAC about 16-18 Mbps, M-JPEG 10 Mbps, Photo-JPEG 8-9 Mbps, and MPEG4/AAC or H.264 as low as you can stand the loss in quality and still retain a video track.
These various compression formats basically represent a compromise between file size and quality with the quoted data rates being typical for SD content with an "average" quality setting. While actual data rates are always dependent on the actual file converted, the stated averages should provide some idea as to what you could expect in comparison to your original source file -- i.e., the AIC/AIFF file would be expected to be about 62-65% the size of your DV file, unlimited H.264/AAC 28-31%, M-JPEG/AIFF 17-18%, Photo-JPEG 14-15%, and MPEG4/AAC or H.264/AAC in the 3-5% range with "reasonable" quality levels.
Since each codec has somewhat different characteristics and user options, I will not go into specifics for each here. What I would recommend at this point is for you to select a short file with typical content and convert it wising the various codecs and determine what compromise in file size and quality you can live with at the display size you plan to use. This in turn will likely depend to some extent on what you plan to do with the final file. For the archiving of files for later use/editin, you like want files to retain as much quality as possible which, in turn, usually implies large file sizes. On the other hand, distribution files can be much more highly compressed as a "finished" product which you don't intend to re-compress or edit further. Remember, when you compress a file more compact format you are literally "throwing away" data so you should be most judicious in selecting that appropriate format to which to compress your files for the saving of file space.

Will QuickTime Pro "Re-compress"?

I have lots of movies made in iMovie that I "shared" as CD quality QuickTime. I would like to compress a few of them even more so that I can email them and place a few on my web page. I know I could go back to iMovie and compress them in the "Share" menu, but I don't have the iMovie of many of the projects. I do have the CD quality Quicktime, however. So, before I purchase QuickTime Pro, can anyone enlighten me if it will allow me to open a CD quality QuickTime and write it out again with more compression?
intel iMac Mac OS X (10.4.7) LOVE my intel Mac

QT will compress almost any file type it can open, so you would be able to re-compress "CD Quality" to a smaller files by choosing other compressors, reducing the frame sizes, lowering the frame rates, or choosing a lower datarate. All these compression options will reduce the video quality when you re-compress a compresed video so you will have to experiment a bit to find settigs that result in an acceptable quality loss.

BEST COMPRESSION TYPE THAT DOESN'T REQUIRE QT 7?

Hi,
I'm trying to find the best Compression Type for Quicktime export - my aim being to get good picture/low file size.
H.264 seems brilliant for this but as Tom Wolsky has pointed out it needs Quicktime 7, the very latest Quicktime, to be viewed.
I've tried Sorenson Video 3 but can anyone recommend a Compression Type that's as good as H.264 and doesn't need the latest Quicktime?
Many thanks,
Mark

In my opinion, MPEG-4 is one of the best codecs in the QT suite. It was released several years ago, so compatibility is pretty high, but the quality is second only to H.264. Also, it's quite efficient; it encodes much faster than Sorenson 3, and it plays back very well on older computers. The latest version of QuickTime for pre-OS X computers included the codec, so you can be sure that it will work on older systems as well. The filesize and quality are not quite as good as H.264, but if you're looking for better compatibility, MPEG-4 is definitely the way to go.

Best Compression Option For Text Only?

I'll need to pre-render a text element to use in a project later on, and unfortunately, I've tried everything I can think of but I'm simply going to have to add compression to it to make it workable. Uncompressed it's to large and PP crashes when I try to bring it in as a png sequence (as it's over 6,000 frames long).
So, this is just simple scrolling text, lasting 4min and has a transparent background. Can anyone recommend the best compression for a video with just text? My goal is, if I DO have to compress this, to keep it the absolute highest quality possible as it will get recompressed atleast once after this.
I've played around with Quicktime and it seems to have a alpha channel option with some type of PNG compression agent. Not sure if that's the best way to go.
Thnx!

I wouldn't say it's a HDD storage issue as I have a 1.5TB drive. I'm just trying to keep the video file sizes down to avoid unnecessary bloat. The video in question (at 1080p for 4min) is 2GB. That's a little to steep from a storage stand point if I plan to do many of these types of videos.
However, I did some research and tried rendering the same video using QuickTime's "Animation" codec (which is also supposedly a lossless codec). The file size is now down to around 400MB and I have an alpha channel I can use for transparency.
What are your(s) thoughts on this particular codec or are there better options?

Audio upsampling in Quicktime Pro: Best export settings for Final Cut?

I'm using Quicktime Pro to convert audio from 32 kHz to 48 kHz, for use in FCE/FCP. Quicktime gives me several options for export settings. I want to make the conversion lossless, without increasing the size of the audio file too much.
These are the settings I'm using so far:
Format: Linear PCM
Channels: Stereo (L R)
Rate: 48 kHz
Sample Rate Converter Settings: Quality: Best
Linear PCM Settings: Sample size: 16 bits
Are these settings the best choices? Does anyone have experience doing this kind of upsampling?
Here are the other options in Quicktime:
Format: Linear PCM, A-Law 2:1, IMA 4:1, MACE 3:1, MACE 6:1, QDesign Music 2, Qualcomm PureVoice, and mu-Law 2:1
Channels: 2 Discrete Channels, Mono, Stereo (L R)
Rate: there are other choices, but I know 48 kHz is what I want
Advanced Settings:
Sample Rate Converter Settings: Faster, Fast, Normal, Better, Best
Linear PCM Settings (when Linear PCM is the format): 8 bit, 16 bit, 24 bit, 32 bit (floating point checked), 32 bit (floating point unchecked).
The file size grows quickly as you increase the Linear PCM bit settings.

You can't create something that is not in the file.
Moving from 32kHz to 48 will only make the file size
larger and can't improve the audio.
Doesn't FCP or FCE import your file at 32. Or does it
change it to 48 after import?
I am aware that increasing the audio from 32 kHz to 48 kHz will not improve the quality of the audio. And yes, Final Cut Pro and Express will both capture and allow you to work witih 32 kHz audio.
I have several hours of video shot with 32 kHz audio settings that I'd prefer to have stored on disk with 48 kHz audio, because (a) some applications like iMovie have demonstrated problems with 32 kHz audio in the past, and (b) the majority of my video is shot with 48 kHz audio, so my 32 kHz video will eventually end up in a 48 kHz project, leaving the upsampling to Final Cut. Yes, I do eventually plan to burn my projects to DVD as well, but this isn't an immediate concern.
The problem with doing the conversion in Final Cut is this: Some of the people knowledgeable about Final Cut Pro and Express recommend doing the upsampling using Quicktime or another application, instead of using Final Cut, because Final Cut may not do as good a job as Quicktime. So my intention is to upsample the audio now in preparation for later projects. I don't completely understand why Final Cut wouldn't do as good of a job at upsampling, but a couple of experienced users in the FCP and FCE forums have independently corroborrated this.
Thanks to everyone for their helpful posts and responsiveness.
PowerMac G5 Quad 2.5 GHz 3GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.5) NVIDIA GeForce 7800GT
Message was edited by: Anthony M Kassir MD

A/V tweaks made in quicktime pro won't appear when imported to imovie

I have a file I pulled from the internet, tweaked the sound and color in Quicktime Pro and saved the file (tried both .mov and mp4) but when I try to import file into imovie or export file from Quicktime to imovie the movie file does not have the adjustments I made in Quicktime.
The file will play the same way as the original I pulled from internet.
Notes:
Quicktime will open and play the new file with tweaks as saved.
I have burned the tweaked Quicktime file to a disk, given it to some to try in their computer and the file plays without the tweaks.
I would really appreciate any help you may have!
Thanks!

I have a file I pulled from the internet, tweaked the sound and color in Quicktime Pro and saved the file (tried both .mov and mp4) but when I try to import file into imovie or export file from Quicktime to imovie the movie file does not have the adjustments I made in Quicktime.
The A/V "tweaks" are local to the QT player -- not embedded in the movie file. If you plan to edit in iMovie, make your adjustments in iMovie. If simply converting the content from one compression format to another, use an application like MPEG Streamclip (free) to make such adjustments.

What is the best compression scheme?

Material shot on HD, downconverted to DV, edited in FCP and now I want to put in onto a DVD. About an hour of material.
What is the best compression scheme? So far testing seems to be export as 10 bit uncompressed and let DVD SP compress it but it's still not great. Lots of compression artifacts in the dark backgrounds.

Also place compression markers at those points in your presentation, where you have sudden scene changes but not because you made an edit at that point. FCP automatically places compression markers at edit points during the edit process in FCP. Then when you export out of FCP, be sure to use the DVD SP Markers export option, (Export as Quicktime Movie) this will then include any compression and chapter markers you've placed in FCP, which will be used by Compressor, during the encoding process to the .m2v file, which helps avoid artifacting on sudden scene changes.
The chapter markers will then be embeded in the .m2v file and used by DVD SP when imported. Personally, I use BitVice, (as my m2v encoder) but compressor works well as well.

Best compression technique. iMovie HD 5 to QuickTime Pro to Web?

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