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iMovie: extremely large file size for static picture with sound

I have an m4a file that is 93.5 MB large, and a PNG image file that is 98 KB large. I want to make a video that is the length of the m4a file, with the image shown statically. That is all fine, but exporting yields about 1 GB for quality "High". I don't whether quality refers to sound, video, or both, but I do know that I want the quality to be that of the m4a and PNG file.


How do I get a resonable export file size? It doesn't make sense the export file is 10 times the original data. It cannot increase the quality, and it doesn't make sense if the export format duplicates the data 10 times.


How do I get a resonable file size, apart from changing the settings in the export dialog?

MacBook, macOS 11.4

Posted on Jul 29, 2021 1:38 PM

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Posted on Jul 29, 2021 2:42 PM

You can't lower the export file size without changing your export settings. Instead of the "High" setting choose "Custom" and use the slider to reduce the Mb per second. That would reduce the file size.


However, 1 GB might be a perfectly reasonable file size. Your m4a file could have been highly compressed to reduce the file size, and when iMovie unpacked it and exported it, it was a much less compressed, thus larger, file size. In the video world, 1 GB is not a very large file. Out of curiosity, what is the "length" you spoke of re your m4a file?


Also, if the final product is 10x larger than when you started, it is what it is based on your settings. Is there some reason why 1GB is not acceptable for your intended use?


-- Rich

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 29, 2021 2:42 PM in response to fenglich

You can't lower the export file size without changing your export settings. Instead of the "High" setting choose "Custom" and use the slider to reduce the Mb per second. That would reduce the file size.


However, 1 GB might be a perfectly reasonable file size. Your m4a file could have been highly compressed to reduce the file size, and when iMovie unpacked it and exported it, it was a much less compressed, thus larger, file size. In the video world, 1 GB is not a very large file. Out of curiosity, what is the "length" you spoke of re your m4a file?


Also, if the final product is 10x larger than when you started, it is what it is based on your settings. Is there some reason why 1GB is not acceptable for your intended use?


-- Rich

Jul 30, 2021 8:00 AM in response to fenglich

Estimates are notoriously inaccurate, as you have found.


The solution is to compress down the video clip to what it was when you started, but you don't want to do that.


You can try exporting out the movie project to email, where you will be given several size choices under the resolution settings. Then drag out the movie from your email to your desk top.



-- Rich



Jul 29, 2021 4:16 PM in response to Rich839

The exports changed during the time, but somewhere between 6 and 10 minutes, default settings from Logic Pro.


However, I wrote the post based on what iMovie /estimated/, however the actual resulting mp4 was vastly smaller than that. Hence it seems to me that if it's not possible to precisely calculate the estimated size, a range of likely size is better to report. The project is intended for Youtube, and it just feels wrong to stream a whole gigabyte, when a tenth or so of it would do. Thanks for your reply.

iMovie: extremely large file size for static picture with sound

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