Exported iMovie file to Quicktime = HUGE?!

[katiewood]

I'd appreciate any help or insight anyone might have about this.

I created a video in iMovie '11 that was approximately an hour long. I knew this would be a large file. When I finished, I exported it to Quicktime and it become a .mov file. When I click on Get Info, it is showing that the file size is 8.8 GB. Again, I knew it would be a large file, but this seems HUGE to me! As a result, I'm having problems trying to save it onto a flash drive or an external hard drive or storing it online. My disk driver is not working right now (simply ejecting any CD I put in), so I'm also not able to burn it immediately.

This video is important to me, so I'm eager to find a way to back it up as soon as I can. Any advice? If I compress the .mov file, what will that do? Thanks in advance for any suggestions you might have! (And let me know if you need more info... I'm really new to the video editing software...)

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Do you know, if the resulting file is in HD (High Definition) or SD (Standard Definition)? If not, open the .mov file in Quick Time Player and press CMD+I to open the Inspector window. Make a screenshot via CMD+SHIFT+4 > SPACEBAR > click on the window and attach the resulting .png file via the

button to your next post.
Do you know which exact settings you used to import and export the footage and finished sequence? If not, maybe have a look at them inside iMovie and also make screenshots and attach them to your next post.

You can also take a look at HandBrake and compress the video further, which should result in a file smaller than 2 GB if you use one of its presets.
Compressing the .mov file further will take away information present in the current file, but since it is not visible information, you will probably not see it anyway.

Also have a look at Advanced Search or Mroogle for dozens of threads about the same issues while you wait for more answers.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

I'm a newbie to iMovie having never used it before. However, I have experience transcoding/converting movies from one codec to another. My advice is this: Assuming you still have the original iMovie project handy, try going into the export options (if there are any) and customize the settings. I'd be willing to guess that there's a combination of settings that will give reasonable quality / size tradeoff.

 

[Dave Braine]

I knew it would be a large file, but this seems HUGE to me!

It's also going to depend on how you made your exported movie. If you go Share>Export to Movie, you get a .m4v movie file which, in one that I've just looked at, would be about 1.5Gb/hour for the large movie setting

As you have a .mov file, it looks like you've gone Share>Export to Quicktime, so you need to check the Quicktime settings as you could easily reach 12-15Gb/hour.

When you Share>Export to Quicktime, click on the Options button in the dialogue box. Then click on Options, then Video Settings and see which Compression Optin is highlighted. DV/Apple Intermediate Codec could easily give the file size that you have. H264 is generally the best setting to choose to maintain reasonable quality and small file size.