Generally, many social platforms have the function to auto-compress a video to adapt their ideal size. The video quality, however, may not be as good as compressing by yourself because you can make quality control on resolution and bit rate. So we must know How to compress a video. Lucky you are! This post aims to share things about compressing a video. Two main things you will know after reading.
- Main factors that do with video size.
- How to compress a video free on PC?
Main factors That do With Video Size
Before moving on to the most important part, let me tell you some information that may help you have a better understanding of what we talk about next. To begin with, what makes a video file larger or smaller? They are main three factors, resolution, bitrate, and frame rate.
Resolution is the number of pixels in your video, in general, the more pixels you have, the sharper your image and the larger your video will be. Video resolutions are typically described in terms of the number of pixels across by the number of pixels high. You’ve probably heard of things like SD, HD, 4K, and so on. These are just different resolutions. You can get a smaller video by lowering video resolution.
Video bitrate basically defines the data throughput in terms of bits per second. The higher the bitrate, the better quality video you’ll have. But the larger the files will be. Eight-bit color depth is pretty amazing for the vast majority of situations.
Video is a series of digital photos stacked together. Video frame rate defines the speed at which those images are recorded and played back. Higher frame rates are so much smoother. As a general rule of thumb, it’s a good idea to stick with 24 or 25 frames per second.
Higher numbers aren’t always better, you have to find the right balance. The higher the numbers, the larger your files will be. Consequently, we need to compress a video. You can adjust it by yourself or let some software help you to auto-adjust to the best effect. And that’s what we will talk about next, how to compress a video on a PC?
How to Compress a Video Free on PC?
After we know the factors that may affect video quality, let’s move on to the next step. How to compress a video? In addition to crop video length and removing audio, here are two ways that actually work, both desktop and web software included.
Supported OS: Windows, macOS, online version (coming soon)
WorkinTool File Compressor is an all-in-one and utterly free file compressor software to quickly compress your multi-format files, including images, videos, PDF, Word, and PowerPoint, with minimal effort. As a lightweight offline tool, it is designed with an easy-to-use interface, therefore even a beginner video editor will find it simple and convenient to use.
The Video Compression feature, as the main function that put the WorkinTool File compressor on the map, can effortlessly reduce video file size without losing quality. Then how to compress a video using WorkinTool File Compressor?
Step 1: Download WorkinTool File Compressor>Add file
Notes: It impressively works with various mainstream video formats like MP4, WMV, AVI, and FLV, and presents you with an outcome in the MP4 or the original format with reduced size but good quality.
Step 2: Adjust the settings and/or save path at you please>Click Compress.
Notes: After uploading, find the toolbar below to make general settings.
For COMP priority, the Clearer Output will export compressed video with definition ensured. The Smaller Size will make your video as small as possible but with a sacrifice to video quality.
You can click Additional Settings to adjust the video resolution, bitrate, and frame rate at your please, or apply auto-adjustment by the software recommended.
Supported OS: online
VideoSmaller is an online cloud-based video compressor that allows you to reduce file size without losing quality. It’s a free tool that supports a variety of different video file formats including MP4, AVI, MEPG, MOV formats.
How to use VideoSmaller to compress a video?
Step 1: Head to VideoSmaller.
Step 2:Tweak a couple of options at your please>Upload Video.
The first option, use low compression level (best quality), gives you better output quality in your video, but won’t reduce the size of a video as much as using standard compression.
The second one you have is to scale your video. Of course, scaling down also results in lower quality, but it might be worth the tradeoff in size.
Finally, you can check a box to remove the audio from your video. Again, this could save you a notable amount of space. But it leaves you without any sound.
Therefore, you’ll need to balance the needs of your audience with size considerations.
No matter what you’re using your videos for, providing your audiences with good-quality videos is crucial. How to find the balance between video size and quality is always a difficult point, but with a little experimentation using WorkinTool File Compressor or Video Smaller, you’ll be able to do it. Hope you can compress and email or share your videos quick and easy.