How to Compress a Video in Final Cut Pro

Hi! This is Dylan from Stupid Raisins. In this video I’m going to show you how to compress a video in Final Cut Pro so that it’s smaller in size without sacrificing quality and easier to upload and share online to sites like YouTube.

Now, if you’re like me, you probably have a computer full of video files and you want to save as much space as possible. Or you want to share your videos online without waiting forever for a huge file to upload. Well, by the end of this tutorial, you’ll know how to make your videos smaller in file size without sacrificing any quality – perfect for saving computer space and sharing online.

In this video I’m going to show you how to compress for YouTube, Facebook, other sites and apps. Then I’ll show how to use the Compressor app for custom options. After that I’ll show YouTube’s suggested requirements and why you shouldn’t let YouTube compress your videos. I’ll also share how to compress for email, long videos and save your settings for faster compression checkout.

Let’s get started!

If you use the default Export File you end up with a large .mov file. We want something smaller for YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and other apps and websites; so click on the Share button and select YouTube and Facebook. Under Settings change the resolution to at least 1080p and set compression to better quality and click next to save.

If you want a few more compression options click on the Share button and Add Destination. Drag and drop Export File into your list of destinations. Name it Compressed and set Format to Computer, Video Codec to Better Quality and Resolution to the largest value. In this case it’s 4096 by 2160. When you export the resolution will automatically adjust to your project size up to 4096 by 2160.

Under Action you can pick what you want to do with the file after it’s saved. For example, open it with an app. In this case I just want to save it so I’ll select Save Only.

Close the settings box and click on the Share button and you’ll now see your Compress destination. Click on it and you can see it’s a much smaller file size.

If you want more custom options you can use the Compressor app. Compressor is an extra app you can buy from Apple for advanced Final Cut Pro encoding and compression.

In Compressor click the plus sign in the lower left and select New Settings. Change Format to MPEG-4, rename to Compressed 2 and click OK. On the right hand side click on Video and set codec to H.264. HEVC is a smaller size but isn’t widely supported. It’s also resource heavy and older computers will struggle with this codec.

Change the Average Data Rate to Custom and use the slider to adjust the data rate. A lower data rate means a lower file size and a higher data rate means a higher file size. You can see an estimated file size up top when you drag the data rate slider.

You can also use presets if you aren’t sure what data rate to use. Set Average Data Rate to Computer.

Back in Final Cut, click on the Share button and select Add Destination. Drag and drop Compressor settings to your Destinations list. Scroll to the bottom and under the Custom folder select Compressed 2 and hit ok. Now this compression option is available anytime under the share button.

Are you ready to compress? Has this video been helpful? If so, hit that like button so others can see this video. Thanks!

YouTube has recommended encoding and compression settings as you can see here. I’ll link to this page in the description. YouTube recommends an mp4 container, H.264 codec, 16 by 9 aspect ratio and up to 8K resolution. The bitrate depends on the framerate, codec and resolution.

To compress with the exact YouTube requirements you’ll need Compressor.

In Compressor click the plus sign in the lower left and select New Settings. Change Format to MPEG-4, rename to YouTube Compression and click OK.

On the right hand side click on Video and set codec to H.264.

Change the Average Data Rate to Custom and use the slider to enter the data rate that corresponds to your resolution and framerate. In this case we’ll set it up for a 4K video shot at 24 frames per second. Check the link in the description for a table of recommended bitrates.

Under Audio set channel layout to Stereo left and right, sample rate to 48, format to AAC, quality to Maximum and bit rate to 320.

Back in Final Cut, click on the Share button and select Add Destination. Drag and drop Compressor settings to your Destinations list. Scroll to the bottom and under the Custom folder select YouTube Compression and hit ok. Now this YouTube option is available anytime under the share button.

You might wonder “why don’t I just export my video and let YouTube compress it?”
Well YouTube might compress it too much and your video will look pixelated and riddled with digital artifacts.

YouTube uses AVC1 to compress if your video is 1080p or smaller. It is highly compressed and will make your video pixelated; especially if there’s a lot of movement in your video.

You can force YouTube to use the VP9 codec which is better quality than AVC1 by exporting and uploading 4K.

To compress a video for email click on the Share button and select Add Destination. Drag and drop Email to Destinations. Close the settings window and select Email from the Share button options. Under settings you can adjust the resolution. Click share and Apple mail will open a message with the video attached. From here you can send like a normal email.

Now that you’ve learned how to Compress a Video in Final Cut Pro you may want to check out this video I made called How to convert 4K to 1080p in Final Cut Pro. Click here to check it out.