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expergo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 21, 2004
213
0
Hey,

If I have a DV file (let's say from imovie full quality export), then I open it in Quicktime and Save it as a MOV (cmd+S), it ALWAYS doubles the file size. Why does this happen?
 

killmoms

macrumors 68040
Jun 23, 2003
3,752
55
Durham, NC
Well, what are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to compress it down to something for the web, or...? You need to use Export > QuickTime Movie and then select a compression codec and set it up so your resulting file will be smaller. What codec and settings you should choose depend on what you're trying to do.
 

expergo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 21, 2004
213
0
Well, what are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to compress it down to something for the web, or...? You need to use Export > QuickTime Movie and then select a compression codec and set it up so your resulting file will be smaller. What codec and settings you should choose depend on what you're trying to do.

I just want to play the DV file. But when I run it through this video program I have, it plays as though the high-quality setting in QT is off. You can see how videos look by going into the movie properties and turning the High-quality off.

So in order to play this video with it in, I have to open the DV file in QT, then just save it as MOV. It's still the DV codec just with a MOV container. But whenever I do that, it doubles the file size.
 

bmcgonag

macrumors 65816
Mar 20, 2007
1,077
0
Texas
I just want to play the DV file. But when I run it through this video program I have, it plays as though the high-quality setting in QT is off. You can see how videos look by going into the movie properties and turning the High-quality off.

So in order to play this video with it in, I have to open the DV file in QT, then just save it as MOV. It's still the DV codec just with a MOV container. But whenever I do that, it doubles the file size.

If you just want to play it, try VLC Media Player for OS X or mplayer for OS X, if you are wanting to compress it then try what the first person's answer was.

You can also, just open it in iMovie if you have that.
 

faustfire

macrumors 6502a
Jul 17, 2002
560
0
California
I just want to play the DV file. But when I run it through this video program I have, it plays as though the high-quality setting in QT is off. You can see how videos look by going into the movie properties and turning the High-quality off.

So in order to play this video with it in, I have to open the DV file in QT, then just save it as MOV. It's still the DV codec just with a MOV container. But whenever I do that, it doubles the file size.

Quicktime defaults to the animation codec (a lossless codec, which is why you are getting big file sizes) when exporting. You need to change the codec to DV/DVCPro NTSC.
 

expergo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 21, 2004
213
0
Quicktime defaults to the animation codec (a lossless codec, which is why you are getting big file sizes) when exporting. You need to change the codec to DV/DVCPro NTSC.

I need to play it in a specific program. What do you mean QT defaults to an animation codec? The movie info says it's a DV NTSC codec. It's exactly DOUBLE the file size of the original.

Take any .dv file and open it in QT. Then save it using the .mov container and you'll see the same thing happening.
 

kepardue

macrumors 6502
Oct 28, 2006
353
7
Out of curiosity, what's the difference between a .mov and a .dv file? Is there a lot of quality lost by having the file in iMovie and then sharing it as a full quality video (in order to get my file out of iMovie but with the subtle trims I've made to the footage).
 

zioxide

macrumors 603
Dec 11, 2006
5,737
3,726
DV is a digital video stream

MOV is basically a container for different types of quicktime movies

MOV can contain a video in many different formats, like dv, hdv, dvcpro, h.264, etc
 

dolphin842

macrumors 65816
Jul 14, 2004
1,172
29
Out of curiosity, what's the difference between a .mov and a .dv file? Is there a lot of quality lost by having the file in iMovie and then sharing it as a full quality video (in order to get my file out of iMovie but with the subtle trims I've made to the footage).

*Do not* use the "Full Quality" preset in iMovie's export (I don't know why Apple calls it that)... go to Expert Settings, then in the dialog that pops up, select "Movie to DV Stream" or, if you want the .mov extension, "Movie to QuickTime Movie," and then adjust all of the Options settings to make sure the .mov is using DV as the codec.
 
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