I am trying to render some ProRes 1920 x 1080 HD footage down to a small enough .mov file to email to a friend (under 20mbs). I have tried several exports using both quicktime movie, conversion and compressor (H262, JPEG, etc) and either the aspect ratio is messed up, the file is huge, or it looks really pixelated.

Can someone tell me the best way I can render these files to a more "sendable" size at the correct aspect ratio?

Thanks

I use quicktime to do all my down converts from pro res for web delivery in mp4, I always produce a pro res 422 master at 1080i 25p and then do an apple tv and a desktop file in quicktime.

Apple TV is around 5mbs and desktop is 1.5mbs you can go smaller to i-pod levels but it starts to look a bit pixelated on a larger screen.

Will mp4 be Ok or do you need .mov? I find mp4 to be more useable and also use a western digital HD box to view the apple tv files on my HD TV

I would try out some of the iPhone settings in compressor. Hopefully it will retain the aspect ratio. Otherwise, I have an easier time making custom setting in Quick Time's export than I do in Compressor. I have exported a number of files at 640x360 which stay at 16:9 & have been pretty small.

You have to specify 16:9 in the settings in Compressor even if the project is in HD. I'm not sure why Apple hasn't fixed this. I just wasted an afternoon the other day when I forgot that I actually made a custom preset for h264 16:9.

Thanks for the help everyone. The iphone setting (640 x 360) worked well Zach as it kept the aspect ratio and was pretty good quality, perfect for email, and it played flawless quicktime, VLC, etc.

Glad it worked out.

One of these years, exporting will be one big green button that says "GO." Until then sometimes it works, sometimes it is a big mess.