Newbie vidder question about ffmpegX, or alternatively, about compression

[fifmeister.livejournal.com]

So, this has been my weekend. On Friday, I finished the vid I've been working on for the past couple of months. I exported it out of iMovie in DV format and then transferred it to MPEG Streamclip and exported it from there in MP4 and MOV formats. Problem was, the smallest file size I could get while still keeping the quality high was 97 MB. (Erk!) The vid is a little over four minutes long, and the frame size is 854 x 480, which may be part of the problem--I couldn't figure out how to downsize it in MPEG Streamclip without destroying the aspect ratio.

I know I've downloaded plenty of fanvids in the past that were great quality, comparable length to mine, and yet had file sizes of only 20-40 MB. So on Saturday, I spent practically the entire afternoon scouring tutorials, LJ vid communities, and pretty much any other place I could find that might help me figure out how to compress my vid.

During my search, I saw ffmpegX favorably mentioned a number of times, so I downloaded it and gave it a try (actually, many tries). Using that program, I was able to compress the vid to about 37 MB, but the vid ended up so dark I could barely see what was going on. None of the tutorials or posts I saw about ffmpegX mentioned this problem, so I'm at a loss as to how to fix it.

I should mention that I actually couldn't get ffmpegX properly installed--I located all the different components, but when I tried to install, I got this error message: ##sh: -c: line 1: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `'' sh: -c: line 2: syntax error: unexpected end of file. I was still able to use the program (to my surprise), but I'm wondering if the darkness issue might have something to do with those missing components that apparently didn't get installed.

So, all that to say, my question is: can anybody help me figure out how to use ffmpegX to get my vid compressed while still keeping it nice and bright, or alternatively, can anyone tell me how to export it out of iMovie or MPEG Streamclip without ending up with a huge file size? Any help would be appreciated, because I'm still obviously very new at this and it's driving me nuts.

Sorry for the tl;dr. :(

Comments

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

I recommend installing the DivX codec (http://www.divx.com/en/software/mac) and then opening the .mov in Quicktime and exporting a DivX .avi from there. I've been creating DivX files for my vid downloads for about 7 years now and I've been very happy with the results: small files (usually around 30 MB) with very nice quality.

An alternative is to use the H.264 codec to export .mp4 or .mov files, which you should be able to do from Quicktime or MPEG Streamclip if your system is up to date. .mp4 and .mov aren't containers that are widely used in fandom right now but the files made with H.264 are gorgeous and, again, small.

Hope this helps!

[fifmeister.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link! I wasn't able to export out of Quicktime (I'm guessing you have to have Quicktime Pro for that?), but I exported it straight out of iMovie using the DivX codec and the quality turned out pretty good. Thanks again for the help!

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Ah, yeah, you do need QT Pro for that. But I'm glad you got it to work with iMovie. Hooray! Glad I could help.

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Have you tried Handbrake? I just finished a vid (admittedly on a Windows laptop) which had a master avi file at around 900MB. I imported it into Handbrake on my iMac, and used the .mpg4 option with the Xvid codec (which you obviously need to have installed first). You can set your target filesize, quality, etc, from the main screen. Click the picture settings button and you get a screen where you can page through frames of the vid (to check that the aspect ratio looks right) and you can reduce the frame size, alter the aspect ratio, deinterlace, denoise, etc. It's just a matter of fiddling with the settings to achieve the result you like best. I used it to make a 55MB Xvid file for computer download and a 37MB mpg4 for my iPhone, as well as a 24MB .mov file for streaming on my website, and I was very happy with the quality of all three.

[fifmeister.livejournal.com]

Huh, I use Handbrake for DVD ripping, but I never even thought to use it for exporting the finished product. Thanks for the suggestion!

[astolat]

Since you're using MPEG streamclip anyway, here are my vid export settings for a standard letterbox-format vid:



If your aspect ratio is different, you can put in any frame size you want, it's just a little bit of math. You pick however wide you want the vid to be (eg, let's say you want it to be 600 pixels wide), and then you just cross-multiply starting from your original aspect ratio:

854/480 = 600/x
x * 854 = 600 * 480
x = (600 * 480)/854
x = 337

So you would put in 600 x 337 for your frame size to get a vid that was 600 pixels wide but in the same aspect ratio.

Also the MPEGstreamclip iTunes presets (see the iTunes button up at the top of the settings window) work great for exporting versions that work for ipod/iphones.

[fifmeister.livejournal.com]

Oh brother, the method for lowering the frame size in MPEG Streamclip was right there under my nose! Now I feel dumb. :p Thanks, that was definitely helpful!