Many people nowadays often find that a significant chunk of their storage space is being taken up by videos. That should not come as any surprise, as video files can be quite large.
The exact file size of videos can vary based on several factors – including its duration. Some videos may be a couple of MB, while others could even take up several GB.
One way to handle video files that are too large is to compress them. In fact most videos that you encounter are probably already compressed – but can probably be compressed further through various means.
Reduce the Video Bitrate
Every video is encoded with a specific video bitrate that is basically a setting which determines the amount of data that it uses every second. Simply put it is a setting that directly affects the file size of your videos.
By lowering the bitrate of your video, you can reduce the file size. Even a small change can have a big impact as it will translate across each and every second of the video.
The only drawback is that altering the video bitrate can affect the quality of the video. If the bitrate is too low the video quality will start to suffer and compression artifacts will appear in its image.
That is why although technically it is possible to reduce the bitrate as much as you want, in practice you can only reduce it to a certain point. Beyond that your video will become almost unwatchable due to how bad the quality is.
Transcode to a More Efficient Video Codec
The video codec is a part of its format, and is responsible for encoding the video data and compressing it so that it can be stored more efficiently.
Most videos are already compressed using a video codec. However it is possible to compress them further by transcoding them to a codec that can provide a better compression rate.
The reason this is an attractive option is because it should not noticeable affect the video quality. At the same time it could significantly reduce the video file size – sometimes by 50% or more.
If you want to see some of the more popular video codecs you can refer to this list. The newer codecs tend to provide more efficient compression than older codecs, but are often not as widely-supported.
That is why in a practical sense there are really two codecs that you should focus on: H.264 and H.265 (HEVC). If your device supports H.265 you should use it as it will reduce the file size of H.264 videos by up to 50%. If it does not you can safely use H.264 to compress videos in any older codecs due to the fact that it is supported by most devices.
To see how a video format can be converted you can visit this link and take note of how easy it is.
Conclusion
If you want to compress a specific video and make it as small as possible, you should try to first see if transcoding it is an option. After you’ve transcoded the video (or if it wasn’t an option) you can try to lower the video bitrate to reduce the file size further.
Make no mistake there are lots of benefits that you can enjoy by being able to compress videos. Aside from the fact that they will take up much less storage space, you’ll also find that they take less time to transfer and require less bandwidth should you decide to deliver or transfer them online.
4 comments
Good advice. I am currently creating various animation videos and have often wondered how to make the final file not so big. This can help to transfer it faster and upload it to various video hosting sites for display. Also, I read some animation mistakes, and I realized that it is important not to spoil the video and its quality in such things.
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This is great when the program is supported by different SOFTWARE and devices. But it is even more convenient when everything can be done online. Previously, I used online audio converter https://online-audio-convert.com/ and I know that I don’t want to bother downloading or installing anything. I want to do everything quickly, online, and it is very important that there is an intuitive interface.
Now there are a lot of good tools for editing videos, managing your YouTube channels, even promoting and getting views if necessary. Now, if you use useful promotion tips and have good content, you can quickly build your audience on YouTube or Vimeo
Of course video editing and editing skills are absolutely necessary