iMovie '06 question?

[Hanafubuki]

I have a movie that I am going to submit to a competition, in iMovie format. I want to save it in the highest quality I can, but the movie is not allowed to be more than 125 MB. Is there a way to tell iMovie how big the file should be, (When exporting) and have it adjust the quality accordingly?

Thanks!

 

[ftaok]

I have a movie that I am going to submit to a competition, in iMovie format. I want to save it in the highest quality I can, but the movie is not allowed to be more than 125 MB. Is there a way to tell iMovie how big the file should be, (When exporting) and have it adjust the quality accordingly?

Thanks!

I'm not sure if you can do that in iMovie, but as long as you're exporting with the "expert settings", you can easily calculate the expected file size.

You'll need the bit rate (don't forget to add the audio bit rate) and multiply that by the time duration of the video. Convert to MB and you're done.

Example

10 minute video, 1500 Kbps video, 128 Kbps audio

1628 Kbps x 600 seconds = 976,800 Kb

976,800 Kb / 8 = 122,100 KB

122,100 KB / 1024 = 119.23 MB

* I think my math is correct.

 

[Hanafubuki]

OK, I'll try that.
Another question,
Which option would make the movie less pixelated? (When using expert settings) My movie exported fine, but it is pretty pixellated.

 

[ftaok]

OK, I'll try that.
Another question,
Which option would make the movie less pixelated? (When using expert settings) My movie exported fine, but it is pretty pixellated.

The answer really depends on what the footage started out as. I'm going to guess that it was DV (from a miniDV camcorder).

Personally, I'd go with MPEG-4 at the native resolution. But you should really check with the contest rules to see if they want a specific format/codec (or exclude certain ones) that the videos are encoded to.

If they accept it, h264 might be a good option as well.

ft

 

[Hanafubuki]

The answer really depends on what the footage started out as. I'm going to guess that it was DV (from a miniDV camcorder).

No, it's actually animated.
They allow AVI and MPG. H.264 is allowed. Thanks.

 

[ftaok]

No, it's actually animated.
They allow AVI and MPG. H.264 is allowed. Thanks.

The question that I have is why did you import your original footage into iMovie in the first place? It seems like using iMovie might be contributing to the pixelation.

Unless you need to use iMovie for something, then I would suggest using something like VisualHub to encode your original file to h264. I've read that VH has a better quality encoder than QuickTime (which is what iMovie uses).

I would suggest trying out small samples at different settings and seeing what works best.

ft

 

[Hanafubuki]

It's an Anime Music video, actually. I suppose that did sound a little odd.

 

[ftaok]

It's an Anime Music video, actually. I suppose that did sound a little odd.

I would still try using iMovie's encoding options first. Play with the settings to see what options gives you the results you're after. If you can get it to work, then try VisualHub. I'm not sure if VH allows you full functionality if you don't pay for it.

ft