why such huge files?

[centurion200]

Gotta ask about something's that been bugging me. Yeah, storage space is getting cheaper all the time, but why do most producers make their videos so large?

Very common for even 30-45 minute videos to be over a gig in size, and the picture quality is seldom good enough to justify it.

Don't want to single any particular studio out, and this applies to most of them anyway. Anyone know why this is?

[Mr. X]

Framerate and screen size. 30fps is going to increase the vid size. Same with the larger 1920x1280 size. Also I think streaming video compresses less effectively than a download video since it has to decompress while pulling chunks down.

In reality these sizes are what videos would be when making them for full screen dvd quality movies. Gone are the days of 320x200 videos.

[Visitor]

Graphics files are harder to compress than other types. Most versions are high definition (HD) so they have more information than the standard definition versions that were most common a few years ago. Just compare the file sizes at a site that has multiple versions: HD, SD, and mobile device.

[KnightsofGotham.com]

I'm gonna throw out a personal statement. this is how I as a producer see things and have seen them.

When we first started close to 2 decades ago cameras shot in standard def and the videos were small.
Customers kept asking why files were so small.

When I upgraded my camera I noticed that it shot crisper content (something about a Carl Ziest cmos lenz or something)
the file sizes got slightly larger but the video was crisper and sharper.

Then some people started asking why not HD?
then more people asked for HD, then some people started saying they would no longer buy from a producer not offering HD.
So when I got the chance I upgraded to an HD camera and guess what?
larger files sizes.

but people loved the 1920x1080 size so it then became about compression and codecs.
but people didn't want to stop using their WMV player.
even though MP4 players like MPlayer (or MPlayer X for macs) played them just fine and were 100% free
so we had to keep the high files sizes for those who refused to switch to a free MP4 player.

When I upgraded to my latest camera I noticed that holy crap the file sizes were huge.... but the pictures were so crisp and clear


its the price you pay for being able to play your super heroine film on your big screen tv.


Anyway just for shits and giggles check out two movies.
the one on the left is almost twice as long as the one on the right but the one on the right has a higher Bitrate


I'm sure we could dial down the nitrates and make them smaller but then would we have to deal with the masses screaming about smaller videos and videos not being as crisp as their dvd copy of the avengers?