AMV file size

Thrior · Post by **Thrior** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 4:14 am

I'm curious. What do you think is a good size for the file? How big file you're ready to download?

I do know that my videos are not in the best video quality. But the problem is that I don't want to upload video which is freaking huge. For example... my newest video (Super Buu tribute) is now some 39 Mb and if I uploaded it with a better quality it would be 72Mb. I don't like to download/upload videos with a huge file size and I don't mind if video quality isn't perfect.

But... what do YOU think? A better video quality with a huge file size or worse quality with an average size?

JaddziaDax · Post by **JaddziaDax** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 4:19 am

i perfer quality over file size...

cause im on highspeed internet so its all about the same waiting time for me anyways :/

people on dial up or with slower connections might have issues with a larger file size..

i perfer about 60-67mb or so for mine

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:19 am

It depends on the length of the video, but I usually expect to download files in the neighborhood of 60 to 70 MB nowadays. Ideally though, the average 4 minute AMV should be about 40 to 50 MB in size.

An AMV should be sized to create the highest quality video within reason. There is a happy balance that you should strive for between size and quality. 72 MB and 39 MB is a fairly wide spread, I'm sure there is a sweet spot within those 2 examples for very good video quality and decent size. Using VirtualDub and XviD for encoding gives you a great deal of flexibility in finding that sweet spot. It's more work than just exporting the finished video directly from your editing software, but it's preferable than just "great quality but too big" or "great size but looks a bit crappy".

Another option is to use H.264/AVC as the codec for the video encoding. Doing this can turn out videos with very high quality video and file sizes closer to the 40 MB "average size". Many newer videos are being released as MP4s with H.264/AVC and either MP3 or AAC audio. You may exclude some people from your target audience doing this since H.264 requires a bit more computing power to play back smoothly compared to XviD and DivX or WMV. I know a lot of editors that release MP4s also have alternate (non-local) downloads of XviD versions for those that cannot play back the H.264/AVC video. But with more widescreen and possibly hi-def videos on the way, MP4 (and MKV) with H.264/AVC + AAC is the next "standard" as XviD/DivX AVI is now and how MPEG1 was the standard a few years ago.

(Yes, I know MANY videos are released as WMVs, and even Microsoft has an equivalent codec to H.264 in WMV9/VC1. But when WMM users will have WMV9/VC1 encoding as a standard option is unknown. And encoding to other codecs for distribution (XviD/H.264/etc.) is always an option that many WMM editors don't take advantage of.)

devilmaykickass · Post by **devilmaykickass** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:33 am

Quality takes priority, but I try to get the filesize as low as possible without noticably changing quality.

It sickens me when I see videos that are nearly 100MB that I filter and properly compress myself and they end up being like 50MB.

JaddziaDax · Post by **JaddziaDax** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:50 am

dont forget to compress your audio

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 6:44 am

I feel that if I can't get an average video (not too much motion and scene changing, that is) to around 10 MB/minute, then I'm doing something wrong in the postprocessing area.

Keeper of Hellfire · Post by **Keeper of Hellfire** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 7:15 am

For XviD/DivX, 10...12 MB/min should usually give a good quality. With a h.264 encode you can get smaller. As said before, don't forget to compress audio.

As a side note: The use of fansubs makes compression much harder. This is, beside the moral issue, one of the reasons why it is discouraged to use fansubs.

Thrior · Post by **Thrior** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:41 am

Willen wrote:72 MB and 39 MB is a fairly wide spread, I'm sure there is a sweet spot within those 2 examples for very good video quality and decent size.

Yeah... I just haven't managed to do that so that the video quality would be good and file size average. I can't convert this to DivX because that program I have doesn't allow it (It actually only allows MPEG1/2 and AVI =P). Usually I have just changed the file type with WMM so that video size will go down =P.

Hmm... what about frame rate? I'm not an expert with this stuff so how big that should be?

Thrior · Post by **Thrior** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:47 am

Blargh.... I mean: what about data rate?
That program I'm using always asks data rate and I have usually kept it pretty hight =P.

EvaFan · Post by **EvaFan** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 11:15 am

use the system calculater and find what you want and see if it works. Take a 4 minute song for example. 4x60 = 240seconds. so you want a 65mb file. That is 65000KB. 65000/240 = 270kb/second. (THIS IS JUST YOUR AVERAGE BITRATE. Make sure you set it higher then this or else it will just use that as your maximum aloud. So set it higher then what you get at the end of your calculation. As for how much higher... that's up to you, how much flashy lights and motion do you have in it? Alot? make a higher maximum etc...

So yeah... it's pretty easy. Once you try it a few times it will come to you. I use Vdub and xvid though so I don't really know how your compressing agenda goes.