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For years, I've been using QuickTime 7 Pro to trim videos. Nothing else. Just removing the portions of the movie that I don't want in order to save hard drive space. Since it's a 32-bit app, I'm trying to get used to using QuickTime 10 to accomplish this same task, since I won't be able to run QuickTime 7 Pro in future macOS versions. For some reason, I only thought you could trim the ends of movies with QuickTime 10 (using CMD + T), but recently discovered you can divide the movie up into clips, so you can delete the clips you don't want even if they're in the middle of the movie. The method is to go to View > Show Clips (or press CMD + E) and then move the playhead to where you want to split the movie into 2 clips and go to Edit > Split Clip (or press CMD + Y). Any unwanted clip can be clicked on and deleted by pressing the Delete key. After you are finished, you press the Done button.
Well, here's the issue. I'm using QuickTime 10.5. Most of the video's I'm editing are in MP4 format. When I'm using QuickTime 10 to trim these videos as described above and click Done, I obviously want to save the trimmed video. Well here are the three situations that could happen:
1. It lets me save the trimmed video using File > Save (CMD + S) as another MP4 file.
2. It won't let me use CMD + S*, but if I try to close the video, it will prompt me to save as another MP4 file.
3. It won't let me use CMD + S*, but if I try to close the video, it will prompt me to save as a MOV file. There is no choice to save as MP4.
The problem is when the 3rd situation happens (only option is MOV). The file size is WAY too large. For example, today I was trimming a 355 MB MP4 video. I trimmed it from 22:04 down to 3:43. The MOV file QuickTime 10 saved was 208 MB. Well, considering that the video length was reduced to only about 17% of the original length, you'd expect the edited video to be around 60 MB. Well, lo and behold, if I trim this same original video in the same way using QuickTime 7 Pro and save it as a MOV file, it is only 61 MB (as you'd expect).
So what gives? How can I get QuickTime 10 to save as MP4 consistently or save to MOV at an acceptable file size like QuickTime 7 Pro does? When QuickTime 10 does let me save as an MP4 files (situations 1 and 2), the file size is the same as QuickTime 7's MOV files.
*I've noticed that sometimes the CMD + S option will be available after you split 1 clip, but then disappear after another split. Sometimes it will let you make multiple splits before it disappears. Then sometimes it won't let you make even 1 split without disappearing.
Well, here's the issue. I'm using QuickTime 10.5. Most of the video's I'm editing are in MP4 format. When I'm using QuickTime 10 to trim these videos as described above and click Done, I obviously want to save the trimmed video. Well here are the three situations that could happen:
1. It lets me save the trimmed video using File > Save (CMD + S) as another MP4 file.
2. It won't let me use CMD + S*, but if I try to close the video, it will prompt me to save as another MP4 file.
3. It won't let me use CMD + S*, but if I try to close the video, it will prompt me to save as a MOV file. There is no choice to save as MP4.
The problem is when the 3rd situation happens (only option is MOV). The file size is WAY too large. For example, today I was trimming a 355 MB MP4 video. I trimmed it from 22:04 down to 3:43. The MOV file QuickTime 10 saved was 208 MB. Well, considering that the video length was reduced to only about 17% of the original length, you'd expect the edited video to be around 60 MB. Well, lo and behold, if I trim this same original video in the same way using QuickTime 7 Pro and save it as a MOV file, it is only 61 MB (as you'd expect).
So what gives? How can I get QuickTime 10 to save as MP4 consistently or save to MOV at an acceptable file size like QuickTime 7 Pro does? When QuickTime 10 does let me save as an MP4 files (situations 1 and 2), the file size is the same as QuickTime 7's MOV files.
*I've noticed that sometimes the CMD + S option will be available after you split 1 clip, but then disappear after another split. Sometimes it will let you make multiple splits before it disappears. Then sometimes it won't let you make even 1 split without disappearing.
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