Rendering Movies in Premiere Elements 2.0

[eve]

I can easily render .avi file formats in Premiere Elements 2.0. (File > Export > Movie) My problem is that the file sizes are huge, how can I compress this rendering to a more manageable size without losing quality? I intend to play the movie on my computer or a DVD player.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

[ATR]

First a few points of clarification:

1 a. What is the format of the content on your Timeline when you go File Menu/Export Movie?
b. When you go File Menu/Export/Movie, what is your export to get your ".avi", Microsoft DV AVI, Microsoft AVI (uncompressed)?

2. When you say that you tend to play your movie on the computer and DVD player, what format is your movie when it gets to the computer viewing and what format is your movie when it gets to the DVD player? My understanding is that DVD players usually support VCD, DVD-VIDEO, jpeg CD. Does your DVD player also support your ".avi"? That is the point that I think that I misunderstood in your question.

At the onset, we need to make a distinction between video for editing and video for presentation. For video editing programs you would want to be using Microsoft DV AVI on the Timeline for editing of that Timeline content. When your Timeline content is exported via File Menu/Export/Movie and you select the file type Microsoft DV AVI (compressor being DV NTSC), the parameters are set. There are alternative exports under that File Menu/Export/Movie route that will give you a smaller file size. In addition, did you know that your can use this File Menu/Export/Movie route for portions (smaller chunks) of the Timeline as well as the Entire Timeline? It depends if it fits into your workflow.

Here are some observations that we can put together to serve your purposes once I get a few more details of your workflow:

I have a .wmv video (320 x 240) with a file size of 364 KB on the Premiere Elements 2 Timeline.

If File Menu/Export/Movie (See Settings)

Then Microsoft DV AVI with compressor DV NTSC (720 x 480), resulting file size = 44.2 MB

Instead, Quicktime with compressor MPEG4 Video (720 x 480), resulting file size = 16.9 MB
(With the Quicktime file type, you can also use the compressor H.263, or, if you had Premiere Elements 4, the compressor H.264, file size = 16.9 MB). To use this export route: Under Settings, General, set file type as Quicktime; Under Video, set Compressor from drop down as MPEG4 Video or H.263 for your Premiere Elements 2 setup.

Now if you took the original .wmv video (320 x 240) and generated a DVD-VIDEO (MPEG2 Compressor) in Premiere Elements, the resulting DVD-VIDEO file structure sizes would be: OpenDVD about 67 KB and VIDEO_TS about 11 MB.

If you are generating DVD-VIDEO, you may find it interesting to explore the Burn Dialog Quality Section and the relationship between space required and bitrate (lower bitrate, smaller file size, lesser quality).

If I used an AVI MPEG4 video file (640 x 480, file size 12.1 MB) from my camera instead of the .wmv video file above,

Then Microsoft DV AVI with compressor DV NTSC (720 x 480), resulting file size = 92.8 MB

Instead, Quicktime with compressor MPEG4 VIDEO (720 x 480), resulting file size = 88.3 MB. Note impact of this type of exploring when using AVI MPEG4 and .wmv as the starting Timeline content.


So, you need to take a lot into consideration, namely video editing vs presentation purposes, alternatives Export routes which allow you to adjust file type, frame size, and compressor, etc.

To be continued,

ATR