Clip videos are too large to share to Mastodon

[quinncomendant]

Description

I tried to Share a Clip to Mastodon that is 3m31s long; the Mastodon server rejected the post with a HTTP error code 413 request too large:

The video file created is 116 MB, which is more than the 99 MB limit of the mastodon.social server. This is a huge file, considering the size of the entire original audio file is only 3.3 MB. 😞

The output video from Pocket Casts is a H.264 video with a 4091 kb/s bitrate + AAC audio with 246 kb/s bitrate.

I experimented with recompressing the output video from Pocket Casts and was able to maintain the same quality with a 238 kb/s bitrate H.264 resulting in a total output file size of 10.1 MB. That's 9% the size of the file generated by Pocket Casts.

I suggest the easiest fix is just to use a lower bitrate on the video created to ensure the output is not more than 3 MB per minute.

Step-by-step reproduction instructions

1. Create a 3m30s clip of the Techmeme Ride Home podcast.
2. Try to share it to your account on mastodon.social.
3. Get a 413 request too large error.
4. Save the video file to, e.g., the Files app and see how freaking large it is.

Screenshots or screen recording

Here's the link to the clip delivered via the pocket casts web service:

https://pca.st/episode/66825708-0518-4b7c-a9bd-4166179e7ede?t=470.6866213151927,681.5384570670215

Did you search for existing bug reports?

• I have searched for existing bug reports.

Device, Operating system, and Pocket Casts app version

iPhone 13 mini, iOS 18.2, Pocket Casts version 7.79.1.0.

Can someone please attach this image to the Reimagine Sharing Project #1910 task? Thanks!