Ten minute 1080p piece. My H.264 export is 1.8 GB, the file the client got from their previous editor is about 420 MB and looks the same to me on their monitor. I matched resolution and frame rate. They asked, politely, why mine is so big and I did not have a good answer. Where is the difference actually coming from?
The other half of the answer is content. Required bitrate scales with motion and detail — a locked off interview compresses to almost nothing, handheld footage of trees does not. If the previous editor's piece was static shots and yours has handheld b-roll and grain, identical settings genuinely produce different sizes.
Mine has a lot of handheld b-roll, so that is probably part of it too.
Check the audio track while you are in there. AAC at 192 to 256 kbps stereo is transparent for speech and music both, and an uncompressed track on a ten minute file is around 100 MB on its own. I have seen people fight the video bitrate for an hour while a PCM stereo track quietly sat there.
Ask what they actually need before optimising. If it is going onto a web player they will re-encode it anyway and your huge file only wastes their upload. If it is going to broadcast or archive, your file is correct and the previous editor undercooked it. Deliverable spec first, settings second.
Also turn off maximum render quality unless you are actually scaling. It does nothing for size and it makes people believe export settings are magic.
@kernel_ring_buf · 3w ago · 3 replies
Bitrate, and specifically you are probably on constant bitrate with a high target and an even higher ceiling. For a ten minute 1080p25 deliverable that is mostly people talking, two pass VBR at a target around 8 to 10 Mbps with a maximum of 12 to 16 lands you near 700 MB and looks identical on any normal monitor. 1.8 GB over ten minutes is roughly 24 Mbps, which is broadcast territory for content that does not need it. Also check your audio is not sitting at uncompressed PCM — that alone can be 100 MB on a ten minute file.
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@kernel_ring_buf · 3w ago
Two pass VBR costs you export time and nothing else. Use it for anything a client has to download.
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@harlan_voss · 3w ago
Audio was PCM, and I was on CBR 25. Both fixed. Thank you.
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