<p>A Master file export is a multipass high-resolution export. Its meant for archiving or transcoding into other formats.</p>
<p>Also, your Zoom recording is probably in a format what is not natively compatible with FCPX and was transcoded into ProRes during import. ProRes is excellent for editing, saving space is not its purpose.</p>
<p>Depending on where you want to publish your video you should choose different export presets, what will trade size for quality or vice versa. However, I doubt you can export in the same format than the recording from Zoom, so export size might vary significant.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-25T01:15:05.360Z
He literally says that he's exporting to h.264, not proRes
stib
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-25T21:41:03.923Z
@stib That is correct and I offered an potential explanation why the export is significant larger than the imported file as my assumption is that it was transcoded into ProRes. I’m unsure where you find I wrote he is exporting to ProRes. With the project in presumably ProRes, exports probably can't have the same small file size. What I also added as a note.
German Dude
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-26T01:15:23.910Z
That makes no sense. The size of the final output has nothing to do with any intermediate codecs. If you don't know the answer to the question, please don't just guess.
stib
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-25T00:06:45.323Z
2020-08-25T00:06:45.323Z
German Dude
<p>I'm a complete novice at final cut. I have recorded a dnd game over zoom, it's a 2 hour video, the file saved from zoom is 756mb. I have edited it a bit (just minor stuff, add a couple of images, remove a few outtakes), and now I'm trying to export.</p>
<p>I'm exporting the &quot;master file&quot;, format &quot;computer&quot;, video codec &quot;H.264&quot;. It shows me 11GB estimated file size. Why is it so huge? What setting can I tweak to reduce it?</p>
<p>Do you know why this happens in general? Why would it turn my ~750MB file into ~11GB file?</p>

<encoding><video-quality><final-cut-pro-x><final-cut-pro>
Final cut pro export file size is huge (despite the small size of the initial video) - how can I shrink it?
lumenwrites
# Final cut pro export file size is huge (despite the small size of the initial video) - how can I shrink it?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-08-24)

I'm a complete novice at final cut. I have recorded a dnd game over zoom, it's a 2 hour video, the file saved from zoom is 756mb. I have edited it a bit (just minor stuff, add a couple of images, remove a few outtakes), and now I'm trying to export.

I'm exporting the "master file", format "computer", video codec "H.264". It shows me 11GB estimated file size. Why is it so huge? What setting can I tweak to reduce it?

Do you know why this happens in general? Why would it turn my ~750MB file into ~11GB file?

**Tags:** encoding, video-quality, final-cut-pro-x, final-cut-pro


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2020-08-25. Score: -1

A Master file export is a multipass high-resolution export. Its meant for archiving or transcoding into other formats.

Also, your Zoom recording is probably in a format what is not natively compatible with FCPX and was transcoded into ProRes during import. ProRes is excellent for editing, saving space is not its purpose.

Depending on where you want to publish your video you should choose different export presets, what will trade size for quality or vice versa. However, I doubt you can export in the same format than the recording from Zoom, so export size might vary significant.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: He literally says that he's exporting to h.264, not proRes  
> **username_1**: @username_2 That is correct and I offered an potential explanation why the export is significant larger than the imported file as my assumption is that it was transcoded into ProRes. I’m unsure where you find I wrote he is exporting to ProRes. With the project in presumably ProRes, exports probably can't have the same small file size. What I also added as a note.  
> **username_2**: That makes no sense. The size of the final output has nothing to do with any intermediate codecs. If you don't know the answer to the question, please don't just guess.  

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