How To Reduce A Video File Size

Your smartphone, your DSLR camera, and your GoPro all shoot high-quality, high-resolution video. In no fourth dimension at all, your video collection's total file size can take on epic proportions. When your memory card maxes out or you want to upload one of these videos to share on the Net, you might be feeling the pain.

The good news is that you tin reduce video file size hands in a number of dissimilar ways. The bad news is that, unless you adjust the right settings, your video's quality will inevitably take a hit. How practice you balance the two? Which settings should you change to reduce size without compromising quality? Read on to learn all that you lot need to know.

ane. Pick the Correct Software

You really should use a reckoner for this chore, not a tablet or a smartphone (though yous can shrink a video on iPhone). The best desktop tool for this chore is Handbrake. It's completely free and works the aforementioned on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Download: Handbrake for Windows, Mac, or Linux (Free)

If yous're on Windows, you lot tin can also effort the Freemake Video Converter, which includes a simpler interface. Handbrake does a ameliorate job of encoding and converting videos, however, so I would recommend learning its ways for a superior final product. If your video has other issues, effort a video quality enhancer to iron those out first.

2. Starting time With the Audio

Before you begin chopping down the quality of the picture itself, take a peek at the Audio tab in Handbrake. Yous might exist surprised by how much infinite sound channels have up; unless your projection requires extremely high-quality audio above all else, e'er tackle sound showtime.

Check if at that place is more than than i sound runway. Y'all only need one. If it'southward a movie file, isolate the English audio or your language of choice. If it's a video y'all made, the first track will probably exist the right ane to keep. Delete all of the other tracks if you don't need them
Nether Codec, choose AAC (CoreAudio) or MP3. These are lossy, compressed audio file formats that will be good enough to fly in many cases. Fifty-fifty for concerts and other sound-dependent material, y'all tin can choose one of these lossy formats and sample it at a college bitrate.
Nether Bitrate, choose 160 by default for near videos. Choose a higher bitrate (256 or 320) if yous're converting a video where sound is extremely of import.

I would recommend that yous simply set the sample rate to Auto in most cases, just this can also be tweaked to optimize audio file size. For human spoken language, set the sample charge per unit to 32, and, if sound quality is important, set it to 48.

3. Choose the Best Codec and Container

Ideally, the original video yous shoot should be using the highest quality video codec and container. When you're ready to reduce the size, you selection the virtually efficient codec and container.

What's the difference between the ii? Basically, the codec is the encoder and decoder "encephalon" that converts a video into bytes, determining the base quality of the video. The container is the file format, the "body" that determines compatibility with different devices and services.

Choose H.264 every bit the video codec. This is the most popular codec to reduce video bitrate and might be up to two times as effective as MPEG-4 for video compression. It is as well recognized by many types of devices, be it a unproblematic Goggle box or even your Raspberry Pi.

Changing the output settings of a video in Handbrake.

Choose MP4 as the container. Once more, MP4 is efficient, just, more importantly, it's the well-nigh widely recognized file format for videos. In fact, YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook all recommend MP4 over any of the rest.

4. Reduce the Video Resolution

Near people have Hd-ready or total-Hard disk drive TVs, simply the large underground is that video resolution isn't as important as yous might think.

Adjusting video resolution with Handbrake.

Resolution affects the size of the video greatly, but the quality of what you're left with might not be likewise far from the original. How far yous sit from the screen, the upscaling technology of the TV, and the bitrate of the video are all going to have a much greater impact.

Here'south a list of commonly-used video resolutions that you tin cull from:

2160p (3840x2160)
1440p (2560x1440)
1080p (1920x1080)
720p (1280x720)
480p (854x480)
360p (640x360)
240p (426x240)

Equally a rule of thumb, check the video's original resolution and go one level below. In Handbrake, you'll notice these settings under the Dimensions tab. Yous can even check out a Preview of the lowered resolution under Summary before you commit.

If you plan on simply uploading your video to YouTube or Facebook, 720p is the best way to get (assuming file size is more of import to y'all than resolution).

5. Bitrate Should Be Your Last Resort

The biggest determing factor when it comes to the quality of a video is bitrate. In simple terms, bitrate is the amount of data being conveyed per 2d on-screen. The more data that y'all permit through, the amend the video quality will exist. As such, reducing the bitrate can besides negatively impact your video quality.

In Handbrake, select the Video tab and, under Quality, use the chart to a higher place to find an Average Bitrate suitable for your project. Make sure that 2-pass Encoding is toggled on.

How to lower video bitrate in Handbrake.

Most DSLRs tape video at a high bitrate, creating huge files. Again, YouTube has some recommendations that yous can use as a pollex rule for any video upload. You shouldn't dip beneath these numbers, but if your electric current bitrate is higher, you can safely reduce it in many cases.

6. Don't Change the Frame Rate

If anyone tells you that yous should reduce the frame rate for a lower video bitrate, don't mind to them. You should keep your video at the same frame rate that it was recorded natively in.

How to change the frame rate of a video on Handbrake.

The human being eye only needs 24 to 30 frames per second for a decent picture show, so it might seem logical to lower the frame charge per unit to that range. Notwithstanding, doing so can affect the smoothness of the video, ruining it before you lot even accept a chance to enjoy it at all.

Can You Reduce the Video File Size Without Losing Quality?

With these Handbrake settings to reduce video file size, you should be able to substantially reduce the file size of a video without affecting the quality adversely. Yous might even hit your intended target size long before yous need to reduce the resolution or the bitrate; information technology always pays to take processes similar these step-by-step, tweaking only what's necessary. Once you lot've figured it out, you'll be able to play, upload, or stream these files anywhere.

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Mihir Patkar (1300 Manufactures Published)

Mihir Patkar has been writing on technology and productivity for over 14 years at some of the pinnacle media publications across the world. He has an academic groundwork in journalism.