How do I compress videos or reduce the size?

Full HD 1080P or 4K videos, in general, can be of large file size. As such, you must consider compressing the files to make them smaller. More so because your learners may have restrictive internet bandwidth access. Hence, for a seamless user experience, its always a good practice to reduce the video file size without losing the video quality. However, several video compressing tools also reduce the quality of the video.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Compress Videos With Handbrake
• Compress Videos With YouTube

Compress Videos With Handbrake

Handbrake is a great solution for reducing the video file size without losing the video quality. 

Available as an open-source tool, the tool can be used to reduce video size without compromising quality.

Using Handbrake to compress videos without losing video quality

• Install Handbrake.
• Double click on the icon on the desktop
• Click on File to import a single video file or on Folder to import an entire folder of files
• Select the video files you wish to compress
• Click on Web Optimised for optimum size
• Click on Start Encode
• Once the video is encoded, click on Tools and then click on Show Queue
• Under Actions, click on Open Destination Directory
• The video will be available post compression.

Important Considerations: 

Compressing Videos is a RAM/ system heavy operation. The time to encode the video will depend on your system configuration. You may experience your system slowing down during the encoding. This will be resolved automatically when the operation is over.

Compress Videos With YouTube

YouTube compresses videos up to 10 times without losing video quality, meaning if you upload a 2GB video, YouTube can compress it down to 200MB while maintaining the same quality. Here's how to upload and download videos with compression.

• Open YouTube Studio.
• Click on the "Create" button and select "Upload videos."
• Drag and drop the video file or select it from your device.
• Fill in the video details like title, description, and tags.
• Choose visibility settings (public, private, or unlisted).
• Click "Next" and finish the upload process.
• Wait for YouTube to process and compress the video.
• Once the video is processed, open it from your YouTube channel.
• Click on the video settings (three dots) and select "Download."

The downloaded video will be smaller in size but retain the same quality.

Note: Wait for the video to be visible in the same quality as uploaded before downloading it. Depending on the original video quality and duration, it could take upto 2x the time for the video to be compressed.