hello
I have some files 1920x1080 coming from imovie, they are too big too transfer on external drive and cannot format the external hard drive. The files are 4gig and the bitrate is 88000, for a clip that is only 6 minutes long! And the codec is apple intermediate codec.

If I change the bitrate to automatic data rate my file becomes 1gig and bit rate is 23000.
I saved by quicktime(movie to quicktime movie) h264, encoding best quality(multipass).

the question now:
-why the original file is so big for such a short clip?
-is it ok to save and change (reduce) the bit rate and will it change the quality?

thank you

That file size is about right. 12 minutes recording time on my Canon 5DII yields a 4GB file & that has a 40Mbps CODEC so using one with double the bit rate should give a 6 minute file.

It all depends what you want to do with the files whether converting to H.264 is a good idea or not. If you want to edit them in FCP then keeping them in AIC is a good idea. You don't have to format the external disk as FAT32 which is what is limiting the maximum file size to 4GB.