Estimate File Size Before Render?

I put out a lot of highlight reels on Instagram and sneek peeks of upcoming full videos, in PP I used to use the file size estimator to set my output render parameters since Instagram has a very strict 15MB file size limit for videos. I do not see anything in DR that will do the same thing; is there something I am missing?

I don't think you're missing anything.

If you’re exporting to a format where you can set the bitrate, multiply the bitrate by the duration in seconds. To find a bitrate to use to limit the file size, divide the file size limit by the duration in seconds.

Thanks everyone, I ended up creating an export preset with the bitrate set to 1400 for Instagram. That gets me right around 13-14MB for the export file size for a 1920x1080 59 second video. The file size still fluctuates a bit but it mostly works. Other platforms also have file size limits like Vimeo for example so it would be nice if BM provided a file size estimator since doing math at the end of an all night edit session just to render the final video for different platforms does not sound like fun.

Create an excel spreadsheet that does the math for you. You can probably find one using a google search.

This is definitely a feature request... Nobody should be doing math to roughly estimate file size based on numbers Resolve can calculate.

This is what 2 pass encoding is for and FFMPEG does it for you. CBR is for streaming, not to reach a certain file size.

I would like to recall the request for this post. It is the only feature I miss compared to Premiere Pro today.

Congratulations to blackmagic for the excellence in this software!

I would like to add on to this feature request. In the Adobe world I have AfterCodecs which allows you to set a target file size and it does the math for you on bitrate. Great feature.

At the very least inside resolve let us type in the bitrate and have it tell us the size. Little trial and error and we can find what we need.

In my case with large VR projects an hour in length, I have to fit under YouTube's 125 gig file size limit without killing quality too much. Anything that helps that workflow makes my life easier.

Consider using x264/x265 two pass encoding with FFMPEG. There are pre-made scripts that automate all that for you. Just type in target file size and go: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/290 ... -file-size

There's lots of things we can do outside of Resolve ha ha. We're saying including it would be nice and save time that's all.

Literally the only reason I still open Premiere Pro is to re-render a video that I would have rendered in Resolve to meet a file size target. I don't want to have to do the mathematics. This is quite an important feature request for me.

Estimating file sizes requires either semi fixed bitrates, which is crap and noone should use or two pass encoding. The later is hit and miss, while it works reasonable well with x264 x265 I found unreliable with VP9. None of these is used by Resolve.

So it's no about Resolve doing some math, it about to understand that fixed bitrates and therfore predictable file sizes are crap from the past. 2 or 3 pass encoding can help that goal with modern CQ/CRF based targets, but are not perfectly reliable.

I agree with the request. There's several things about the Resolve deliver page I'd love to see work better (though it has come a long way!)

My workflow most of the time with Resolve is to export DnxHR SQ or something to that effect and keep that high quality file in my archive. Then if I need a highly compressed deliverable, I run that file through adobe media encoder since I've found it to be vastly superior to Resolve's handling of H.264/265 with 2 pass encoding and what not.

But, of course the downside is you have to have a subscription to at least Premiere Pro for that. It makes more sense if you already need other Adobe products.

Yes! That would be awesome! These two things I've circled in red NEED to be added to Resolve. MPEG Streamclip had it back over 10 years ago.

Untitled.png (93.24 KiB) Viewed 15020 times

Fun fact: it was me who made the suggestion to the creator of MPEG Streamclip to add the estimated file size calculator and in the next version it had it.

Ha ha, nice.

Yeah I tried to find some file size estimators online but they were clunky and dated. And in the end I didn't find them to be accurate anyway. Something built in would be more accurate you would think.

With online streaming being more important than ever, and different services having file size limits, or online contests having file size limits, it would be nice to have.

Seems like a nit picky feature but it would save time and allow submitting things at the highest possible quality yet fitting within the limits.

I agree with the request. There's several things about the Resolve deliver page I'd love to see work better (though it has come a long way!)

My workflow most of the time with Resolve is to export DnxHR SQ or something to that effect and keep that high quality file in my archive. Then if I need a highly compressed deliverable, I run that file through adobe media encoder since I've found it to be vastly superior to Resolve's handling of H.264/265 with 2 pass encoding and what not.

But, of course the downside is you have to have a subscription to at least Premiere Pro for that. It makes more sense if you already need other Adobe products.

Only true for people unwilling to learn the basics of FFMPEG in a few hours. Seriously, many things mentioned in this thread are plain stupid. It's been proven mathematically that there is no benefit in uploading anything beyond CRF 14 H264 to YT.

Yes! That would be awesome! These two things I've circled in red NEED to be added to Resolve. MPEG Streamclip had it back over 10 years ago.

Untitled.png

Fun fact: it was me who made the suggestion to the creator of MPEG Streamclip to add the estimated file size calculator and in the next version it had it.

There is a reason that these things are from 10 years back, as they make no sense in CRF/CQ world today.

This would be the biggest game changer compared to PP. It's a pain to not know whats the estimated size and have to calculate every time.