Video export settings porn editors/producers use?
 

I'm finally getting around to producing some original videos for a Clips4Sale store and am having trouble exporting videos with a high quality and small file size like the kind I've seen from established porn studios.

To give you an example I've downloaded many 20 minute MP4 HD videos (1920x1080) from several porn studios that are around 500 to 600 MB in size, but when I try to export my HD MP4 video the size is often 2 or 3 times larger. I use Adobe Premiere to edit on a PC and Media Encoder to export the MP4's. I've tried several of the AME H.264 pre-sets like YouTube HD, Vimeo HD, etc. and these give me the super large file sizes. I also tried adjusting the bitrate, and this does produce a smaller size but the quality seems to suffer.

It looks like most porn studios know the "secret formula" for outputting great looking MP4 videos with minimal file sizes so I'm hoping someone here knows this and can help me out.

I read online that Handbrake might be a better solution than AME so is this what porn editors/producers use? What format do they output their master video file as before bringing it into Handbrake?

Someone else mentioned Sorenson Squeeze Pro which is not super expensive at $200, but it would be nice if I could solve this issue with something I already own like AME or is free like Handbrake.

Hoping some porn video editors or producers see this and can help a newbie out. Thanks!

I use Moyea Video4Web converter (free) to quickly produce smaller MP4s

Moyea Video4Web Converter - Convert videos to flash files for web players.

There are many tools for this though.

BTW: Clips4Sale sucks. Lots of work for pennies. You will make more money from VoD sites like AEBN.

Secret tip. Take a poo on them...

OR...

1) Create a youtube account and make sure it is marked as private and unlisted.

2) Upload files of whatever size you want.

3) Youtube uses its processing power and settings to reduce the size but keep the quality. The conversion of your video to mp4 will be done with the latest cutting edge settings and technology possible... FOR FREE...

4) Download new compressed smaller mp4 from youtube

5) Repeat as needed.

In otherwords, don't worry about the latest settings, programs, tech etc to make your video small and sharp. Let youtube do it for you for free...

See, I CAN be useful sometimes :)

That's good advice CS.

Yepp, I do this the same way.
Uploading (even big files) is faster than converting on my machine 😎

Great advice

Firstly I don't use the seperate Premier media encoder tool - I export direct from Premier as its faster.

Use H.264 as output.
I generally then use 'Match Source - High bitrate' from the preset.
Now the the important bit to get the file size down, On the 'Video' tab, look for 'target bitrate and max bitrate'. Reduce these right down (3-6) to get a smaller file size. Going to low will give a poor quality pic.
This setting alone will change the file sizes no end.

On another note, fuck knows what Adobe did, but the latest version of Prem CC (2015?) actually renders slower than 2014 if you have a multicore processor.

I still use the 2014 version as it uses all 8 of my cores and almost maxes them out on mp4 export.

There are many programs that do this, but generally if we're talking FHD, either X/H264 CBR 5000 kbps (if you've got a camera that moves around) or CRF 20 (if you've mainly a still camera with a passive background) seems to do the trick in making economical file sizes that still have good video quality.

CUDA/NVENC H264 may result in faster encoding, but be warned that it usually results in larger file sizes if you opt for CRF encoding. I'd recommend only using this if you quickly need to compress raw footage into something manageable for editing, but not for actual subscriber use.

OK its clear that you know nothing about compression...thats not a slam it just is what it is...CS gave good advice for sure but if you want to understand it you need to understand the codecs for starters if you are using anything other than H.264 or H.265 stop.... the container isnt as important but mp4 is preferred because it has wider support than matroska (mkv) or .mov

to do it right learn the difference between the profiles (hi10, baseline) and learn what the settings do...videos with little movement need WAY different settings from fast cuts and leaves in the wind and water ripples...cartoons need different settings from real life and porn generally needs different settings than most TV shows you watch.

When you learn it it gets kind of intuitive as to what settings are best for a particular video.

If this is a livlihood for you this is time well spent.

Its not as simple as saying set this to this and this to that...HD needs VERY different settings than SD and UHD is different from both when you get it figured out you will be amazed at how crystal clear a 4K 20 minute video can be at just a couple hundred megabytes

if you have specific questions feel free to ask me....good luck man

Switch to Final Cut Pro, Compressor, and a Mac, you will forever be set free.

Google Larry Jordan, this guy has a video tutorial for everything.

Thanks for all the advice and excellent tips everyone. The YouTube idea is very interesting... never thought of that. Wonder if it would also work with Vimeo since I believe its easier to download videos from them. A few questions:

Tubevideoeditor: are you saying that a min bitrate of 3 and a max of 6 produces great looking videos? That seems pretty low but I'll try it.

Mike South: I come from the mainstream video production biz where it wasn't super important to produce small file sizes so I know about compression in relation to that. But in porn small file sizes download faster, which is what customers want. That was the basis of my question, how are porn producers getting those small file sizes without sacrificing video quality. I thought asking the question to people who make porn was the best idea but if you have any other suggestions on where I can get more info on this please let me know. A google search didn't really turn up anything useful other than the Handbrake and Sorenson options I mentioned. From your post it sounds like you use different settings depending on the video content, which seems odd since most amateur porn videos tend to have the same types of shots, so I would think that one export setting would probably work for most videos.

SpiceyM: I've heard criticisms of Clips4Sale (there are several posts here on GFY about that) but I'm only using them to start so I can generate some income then I'll probably move on to a paysite or something else like AEBN.

What is your niche? C4S was the biggest waste of time I can imagine.

I am not sure why you would want to upload files, wait, and then download files, that seems silly to me.

You can use free software such as handbrake. Unsure of settings? Weren't we all. There is no magic pill that anyone of us can prescribe. You have to gain some understanding of at least a few of the settings.

When I let my office go, I lost a video editor. What to do now? I searched for the magic pill of "just give me the settings so I can get going" and there was none.

So I read, and read, and read... watched tutorial after tutorial... and after a few days, things started to make more and more sense.

You need to take a 1 minute clip, and export it several times with different settings so that you can get the quality and file size that you want. Compare these exports and you will eventually find the settings that you seek.

There are basic settings that you are probably looking for... bitrate, dimensions, and image quality. All three will impact the filesize and image quality.

You will have to put a little work into it, that is... if you want to do it the right way.

Just to throw my :2 cents: in here. C4S isn't a place where you need to worry immensely about the file size, the guys on there are going to download it anyway, not stream it. Yeah you don't want it to be huge, but spending ton's of time trying to get the smallest file that still looks good might be a waste of time that you don't need :1orglaugh

I pump stuff out of PP back into original size and format so it goes pretty quickly, then fire the file up in handbrake where I have a dozen or so pre-sets that are good for everything from SD up to 4K, if your doing c4s I think you can still do like a full size and a mobile version so you get 2 bites at the apple still. Play around with a 1 minute video like what was suggested, and get your pre-sets down and you should be good to go.

mikesouth, if you've gotten a 20 min 4K video that looks good at a couple hundred MB, I'd love to see it and get the software and settings that you used, I've never been able to get them crunched down that small and keep them usable :)