Big discrepancy between estimated size of exported file and actual size

[Scott Herriott]

I’m running FCP 10.6.5 as well.

MacOS 13.2

edit: Just downloaded Pro Video Formats…will give it a try!

Thanks,

Scott

[Doug Metz]

There are some important fixes in that Ventura 13.2.1 update, so unless you’ve got a reason not to, I’d update that first.

You can check your Pro Video Formats version by opening up System Information app (Utilities), and in the left column under the Software section you’ll see an ‘Installations’ item – hit that and you should be able to find it alphabetically. It should have shown up toward the end of October last year.

[Scott Herriott]

Updated MacOS to 13.2.1

Downloaded Pro Video Formats.

Gave it another shot at exporting.

Analyzed it in Invisor with some encouraging results…

Format profile now is “422 HQ”

The overall bit rate is higher at 69.4 mb/s vs. 54.4 mb/s before.

What concerns me, though, is that the file size is still 39 GB.

At Filmhub they say a 90-minute film should be around 100GB.

My film is 75 min. at 39GB.

Do you think it’s worth a shot at trying to upload it there again (takes about 6.5 hours)?

[Doug Metz]

Well, that’s a start… still seems small for the dimensions and duration. The only scenario where this would make sense is if you had a series of static images, like a slideshow, with very little action or animation. Gonna need to stew on this one.

[Scott Herriott]

So here’s what I think MAY be going on…

On another timeline (with a different version of the film I can’t use for Filmhub due to its dimensions) under “Available Media Representations” there’s a green dot next to “Original (Apple ProRes 4444)”.

When I began to try and export that the estimated size was similar to our examples (103 GB). When I started the export, as an experiment, it was taking a lot longer than our examples, telling me that, yes, the file was going to be huge and would probably be around 100GB. But like I said, I can’t use it due to its dimensions which are unchangeable.

In the timeline I’ve being trying to export, per our discussion, underneath the “Available Media Representations” it says “Original Apple ProRes 422 Proxy” with a green dot next to it, then under that is a red triangle with “Proxy” next to it. But if that’s the case, why would the est. size of the file in the Export File window say the exported file would be over 100 GB?

Thanks again for your time, Doug. You’ve helped this tech idiot learn some stuff so far. Hopefully more!

Scott

[Doug Metz]

That’s definitely interesting…

Is the other timeline (the one you can’t use) the same edit, just with different dimensions? If so, you can duplicate that project in the browser, then change its dimensions in the inspector. With the project highlighted, you should see a blue ‘Modify’ button in the Info pane of the inspector and you can change it in there. You won’t be able to change frame rate because there’s media in the timeline, but you can do whatever you want with the dimensions.

EDIT – Make sure your viewer’s ‘View’ setting is set to “Optimized/Original” under Media Playback…

[Scott Herriott]

Doug, thanks for the tips.

Will give it a go tomorrow morning and let you know how it went.

Thanks again,

Scott

[Scott Herriott]

Doug, a new, bizarre detail has occurred. This morning when I opened one of the possible versions of the project under the “Available Media Representations” it clearly said Apple Pro Res 4444 (that’s good, that’s the big filing I need to export). Literally, a few minutes later, all three of the versions show, under “Available Media Representations”, “Original (Apple Pro Res Proxy)”. I didn’t change anything at all in the interim. Is there some type of automatic switchover to Proxy once the FCPX is up and running?

[Ben Balser]

Verify the bit rate of your original media.

To switch between proxy and original/optimized media, that’s in the Viewer menu. What that is set to is what you’ll export. And currently there’s no known export bugs that will affect bit rate changes. The bit rate will be whatever your original footage is. Thus, if your original footage is 8-bit, for example, exporting ProRes 4444 HQ will give you an 8-bit ProRes 4444 HQ file. You’d have to create a custom preset in Compressor to force an increase in bit rate.

[Scott Herriott]

Ben and Doug, problem solved!

Turns out the Filmhub site had conflicting info. In one area it said to only send a film with the ProRes 422 HQ codec, but at another place they state they didn’t encourage 4444 XQ because of storage issues on their end. Since my film is only 75 minutes long the exported file turned out to be just 64GB and it was accepted.

Thanks again to both of you for your help!

Scott