Resolve exporting individual files WAY bigger than originals

Hello!

I loaded up some GH5 footage (4k @ 59.94fps, 1.08 Gb/s data rate, Apple ProRes 422), color corrected them and I set up a timeline at 1080p 29.97 fps. I go to export all the individual clips as Apple ProRes 422 at an automatic bitrate (I've tried setting it at 10,000 kbps) and I'm getting crazy results.

The original capture files add up to about 320 GB.

I have about 650 GB available on my SSD so I think everything's going to be fine with the lower quality clips. Resolve says it will fill up to 125% of disk space. So I target my larger, slower drive that has 3TB available. Resolve then says it will fill up 662% of the disk space!!! What!???? It's just at regular Apple ProRes 422, 1080p @ 29.97 and an automatic bitrate.

What's going on here??????

Thank you for any insights!

Steve

You mentioned setting a target bit rate to 10,000 kbps, but Resolve doesn't allow setting target bit rates for Apple ProRes (at least not on Apple Silicon) so which format and codec are you rendering to exactly?

I was going all over the place (picking the data rate with H.264) and then when choosing ProRes 422 (HQ, then switching to reg 422), I just had it on "auto" data levels (I tried "Video" data levels as well). Didn't seem to change anything.

There was a peculiarity when I tried to export just one clip by shifting the in and out point. The "Disk Space Currently" used and 'Disk space after render" were equal. I figured "one small clip. Makes sense." I then started pulling the out point across the timeline. The "Disk space after render" percentage didn't budge. All the way to the end (91 clips), disk space used after render was still equal with current disk space.

Naturally, when the "Disk space after render" is over the storage space left, it doesn't allow Add to Render Queue. But when I pulled the out point all the way to the timeline, both percentages staying equal, it allowed me to add the clips to the job queue. I then pressed Render and it did nothing.

I'm running an Apple M1 Ultra with Sonoma 14.4.1 if that helps anything. I had the same settings when I tried to export to both drives with very different free space. The drive with a little over 600GB left gave a space used a little over 100%. The 3TB available gave a space used of over 600%. It's a 12TB. Wouldn't that be 72TB used?

Thank you for your time!

The file size of exports has NO connection to the file size of the originals. If you thought it would, get rid of that thought.

Distance = Speed x Time. If you drive at 65 mph for 1 hour you will have traveled 65 miles.

Likewise the formula here is File Size = Bitrate x Duration. At 10 Mb/s for 10 seconds, you'll get a 100 Mb file.

So if you want smaller files, you will need a lower bitrate, a shorter duration, or both.

I think the only control we get over the bitrate of ProRes files is the flavor. Proxy will be lower than 422, which will be lower than 422 HQ, etc.