Quick encoding question.

[Turboguard]

Another weird question, getting alot of these weird requests from my office. They want me to re-encode a 1:41min h264 file that's 125Mb into a "less than 10Mb" file for use on wall street journal's website. I have no clue why it needs to be so small, and sadly can't ask why. 

Here's my problem, only way I see to get it below 10Mb is to us a bit rate so small that it goes below, e.g. 0.5Mbit. Doing this obviously makes the video look like crap.

Do I have any other options?

[Kisaha]

Usually, specific organizations, networks, media outlets have specific requirements. You should speak with them.

Meanwhile, start experimenting, lower sound quality, maybe frames, and bitrate for sure. 10MB sounds like something from the 90s (Real player like!), or something from the future/present (H265 can make it possible).

[sina_html]

I usually deal with this situation, a lot of clients want a version for social networks. I've made 5 minute videos under 20 MB a lot.

I use Handbrake to re-encode a high quality master from Premiere, my check list goes like this:

1. lowering the resolution of the image to 720p or even 480p

2. making the sound mono and lowering the bit-rate as much as possible depending on the content.

3. In Handbrake, there are two encoding modes, constant quality and specified bit-rate, with constant bit-rate, you can specify the size of the output file quite accurately but constant quality mode is more efficient so I use it and experiment with different setting until I get the required file size.

4. there is constant and variable frame rate options but I haven't experimented with them and don't know how much do they affect the file size or how reliable a variable frame rate file can be.

5. encoder levels and standards may need to meet a certain requirement depending on the platform that you are going to use the video on.

 

Another way that comes to my mind is to upload your video to Vimeo and then download one of the lower quality re-encoder version that meets your file size requirements.

[cantsin]

2 hours ago, Turboguard said:

Another weird question, getting alot of these weird requests from my office. They want me to re-encode a 1:41min h264 file that's 125Mb into a "less than 10Mb" file for use on wall street journal's website. I have no clue why it needs to be so small, and sadly can't ask why. 

Here's my problem, only way I see to get it below 10Mb is to us a bit rate so small that it goes below, e.g. 0.5Mbit. Doing this obviously makes the video look like crap.

Do I have any other options?

1:41 min = 101 seconds, 10MB = 80 Mbit. That means that your bit rate it actually 0.8 Mbit/s, not 0.5. This is reasonable enough for encoding SD or 720p quality video (equivalent to encoding a 100 minutes feature film into a 600 MB file).

Actual visual quality will much depend on the content. For animations, close-ups etc., this should be good enough.

[Bioskop.Inc]

MPEG StreamClip has an option to export & choose the Mb (lots of options MB & Mb etc..) you want it to be - might solve your problem, but are you sure that the website wants it full sized & HD?

[EthanAlexander]

Do super long GOP (keyframe distance) and it will help keep the quality higher at that small bitrate. Don't go too long or it won't be as compatible with devices. Somewhere in the 30-48 range should do.