2 Aspects to Consider While Compressing Videos Effectively

Do you want to reduce the file size of your videos? As you may have heard it is possible to ‘compress’ videos in order to do that, but if you aren’t actually familiar with video compression, it can seem a bit complicated at first.

In order to compress videos and reduce their file size, there are two factors in particular that you need to be aware of and which will be discussed in this article.

2 Factors to Consider While Compressing Videos Effectively

Video Codec

The video codec is a part and a parcel of the video format (along with the container). It is used to encode the data that makes up the video and arrange it more effectively. In a nutshell, it is the part of the video format that determines the compression that is used by the video.

Over time the compression used in video codecs has steadily improved, which is why newer codecs tend to offer better compression rates than older codecs. The difference in compression rates can vary, but in some cases, it is fairly significant.

If you’re wondering why all videos don’t just use the latest codec with the best compression, the answer is simple: Compatibility. Simply put newer codecs aren’t as widely supported as older ones, and some devices may have difficulty playing videos that use them.

Additionally you’ll need a PC or Mac video converter to transcode your video to a different codec, and for example, you could try Movavi Video Converter.

Video Bitrate

The other factor that determines the video file size is its bitrate – which is very literally the amount of data that the video uses each second. As such the file size is really just the bitrate multiplied by the video’s duration (in seconds).

By reducing the video bitrate you can directly reduce the file size of your videos – but it does come at a cost in terms of quality. When the bitrate starts to get lower the video may not have enough data to reproduce it in the same quality and compression artifacts may start to appear.

The bitrate that is necessary for a video depends on its resolution, frame rate, and the codec that it uses. For example, if your videos use the MP4 with H.264 format, YouTube’s guidelines will give you an idea of the bitrate that is needed.

If you do decide to reduce the bitrate any lower than is recommended, you will need to strike an acceptable balance between the file size and quality.

What Else?

By now you should have a much better understanding of video compression, and how to compress a video. It is up to you to decide which option suits you best, based on compatibility, desired file size, and quality considerations.

If you use any other method or technique for compressing your videos, please let us know through comments. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our free email newsletter for more such articles and to stay connected, please follow and like us on social media websites.