Maybe this is really a question for Magix support??? I have two versions of MEP: old version MEP 17 plus (which compresses MP4 files during the export process) and newer version MEP 2016 plus (which does not appear to compress exported MP4 files nor does it compress exported Windows Media files). To test the inability of MEP 2016 to compress MP4 files on export, I took several MP4 files exported from the old version and imported them into the new version and simply exported them again. In every case they were multiple times larger than the starting files from the old version. Is there some software missing that I should have but don't have?

Hi, thanks for the update.

Unfortunately, you have still told us nothing about your computer or about precisely which version(s) of MEP you have; you can check under Help>About.

You have also still not told us why you need an mp4 file exported from an mp4 file to be compressed. As a suggestion, based on the limited information you have provided, your older version of MEP is exporting your files at a (much) reduced bitrate, frame ratio or quality-level, (or all three), compared to the original file(s), hence the smaller file size.By its very nature, "compression" has to remove some data from the original file.

I would also speculate that if you check the precise export settings in MEP 17 Plus and compare them with the same settings in MEP 2016 Plus, they are almost certainly quite different!

You mention Magix support; certainly there is nothing preventing you raising a support ticket but since both your existing versions of MEP are now "old" (comparatively-speaking) they may be unable to help you, unfortunately.

Jeff

emmrecs:  Thanks for the information.  As per your suggestion, I reduced the average bit rate per second for the export and produced a much smaller export file.   That brings me one step closer to actually starting my new project.  One new problem that I now have is that the exported MP4 file momentarily stutters (is the word shudders?) at some points.  I tried changing the quality of the export from "balanced" to "better", but that didn't solve the problem.  The stutter does not appear in a large mpg file that was used as the starting point.  (All that happened was that Magix was used to convert the large mpg file into a smaller MP4 file - no editing what-so-ever.)  

(The hardware is: AMD cpu fx6300 - six core, gtx 750 video card, 4 gb memory, small SSD hard drive 120 gb with 80 gb free space,  -- plus windows 10 home operating system.)

MEP version 15.0.0.114 (UDP3)

(I make family themed videos that are e-mailed to family and friends in various locations.  Their local systems have size limits on the size of files that they can accept.)

Jerry

Hi again.

Just a few thoughts: first, your computer. Thanks for the spec. Three things stand out as potential "bottle-necks": your CPU is not especially high-spec, unfortunately (see this page for a comparison with other processors); 4GB RAM is the absolute bare minimum I would consider as usable for video editing; one single SSD drive, only 120GB, with 80GB free, is, again a limiting factor, since it is comparatively "small" in capacity and the same drive is required to "run" the operating system and MEP and pass your video data to MEP and write the exported data to file for your final mp4! All the above limitations could well be leading to the shudders/stutters you see in the exported mp4 because the CPU is not especially "fast", your RAM is limited in "size" and the drive simply cannot process and pass the data stream fast enough because of all the different tasks it must simultaneously perform.

With respect to the shudders; have you tested the mp4 by playing it back on another computer? Does/do the shudder(s) always occur at the same place in the file? I'm trying to establish whether the "fault" is in the exported file or possibly in the computer playing that file.

One other question: you mention you have Win 10 Home. Can you say exactly which version? If you press the Windows Key+R and in the box that opens type winver, you will see a screen which will tell you exactly. That information might well be useful to know!

Jeff

Hi Jerry,

Rather than emailing video files, which become very large, very quickly, have you thought of using YouTube (YT) or Vimeo?

With YT, you can upload your videos in full HD and mark them as unlisted so that the general public cannot see them. Then you just send the link to family and friends.

John CB

emmrecs: Thanks for the suggestion. After looking carefully at the "stutter" image problem again, I realized that there was a stutter in the MEP image even on just playing the mpg file, without doing anything at all except for on screen playback. So I tried some other software. The mpg file played back smoothly with Windows Media Player and some other players. However, Quicktime did not know what to do with the mpg and Windows Movie Maker was unable to load the mpg because of "too many triggers".

I found some old software that works on Windows XP SP3 and recreated my starting file. Instead of the mpg file, the old software created a very large avi file. My MEP program (new 2016 version) accepted the avi file and I was able to finish the project using that avi as the new starting point.

The biggest stumbling block after using the avi file was that MEP's group and ungroup buttons didn't work the same as in my old version of MEP. The hot key "G" did work though.