Longest WMV out of FCP using Flip4Mac

[Jeremy Garchow]

I don’t see why it would. It’s going to be a big file though. What does client plan on doing with it?

[Mark Maness]

That’s a 2 GB limit on a FAT32 partition. Even worse for media files.

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com
https://blogs.creativecow.net/waynecarey

[Jack Westburg]

fat16 max file size = 2gb (rarely4gb)
fat32 max file size = 4gb
NTFS max file size = 16EiB (bigger than your hard drive)
HFS+ max file size = 16EiB (bigger than your hard drive)

If you’re client is using a version of windows installed on a Fat32 drive, you must be making some WMVs using a 10year old codec because…wow…nobody installs windows on a Fat hard drive anymore.

The only issue would be getting it to them if the video is over 4gb. (macs cant write to a NTFS drive, and PC’s can’t read a HFS+ drive, which are the only file systems available to transfer a 4gb+ file) (…you could try the unix file system but external drives always break for me when I format them that way)
Since you are on a mac, you would have to make a HFS+ external drive, and give them some software called Mac Drive so they can read the HFS+ drive.

Shouldn’t be an issue if you manage the bitrate to keep it under a 4gb file.
(ie: for 2hr video, keep below 4640kbps total birate (vid+audio) which will make a file under 4gb).
Use Bitrate Pro to do the math (enter TRT and file size you want, then click calculate under Data rate)
https://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/bitratepro.html

I really doubt packaging hours of video in a single WMV is wise.
I’d be weary of the WMV drifting out of sync because of weak hardware playing it. Thats even if the computer can play it at all if it is a high resolution and high bitrate. If there are any break points in the video you might consider making multiple WMVs. Make a playlist and the video will feel like it’s “chaptered” in the same way a dvd is. Smaller file sizes, smoother playback on weak computers.

I’ve had bad experiences exporting FCP sequences directly to a compression program (such as compressor, or flip4mac). It feels very unstable, takes twice as long, and creates larger files. Compared to exporting sequences in their native format/codec to quicktime container, then compressing that file.

[Tom Brooks]

I think you guys are making it worse than it need be. I make huge FAT32 partitions with my Mac–500GB in the MS-DOS format in Disk Utility, so I think the partition limit you claim is outdated. There is a 4GB file size limit for FAT32. But how common is FAT32 now outside of Panasonic P2 circles? It was outdated with Windows NT and 2000. You can put about an hour of 2Mbps Windows Media in 1GB of drive space, so you could do about 4 hours in FAT32. According to my math.

[Jeremy Garchow]

Regardless of file size limitations between Mac and PC, my concern would be who are you physically going to distribute this to and hows it going to get there? If you are talking about a download, then anything over a gig is quite a long wait on some broadband systems.

[Tom Brooks]

Really great tips. Neat calculator.