Compress Video: How to Compress a Large Video on Mac or Windows PC

Video compression means to reduce the amount of data on a video. It's normally done by decreasing and removing redunt data from the video. People needs video compression because video files take up a lot of storage space in the hard drive, and large files are burdensome and very heavy to transfer. You want to compress video files so as to release free space, compress video for YouTube, transfer to your device or email to others.

• Part 1. Guide to Compress Video Files
• Part 2. Common Tips on Video Compression

Part 1. Simplest Way to Compress Large Video Files

UniConverter, which is very suitable to compress video files to play on portable devices because the optimized presets are built-in the tool.

How to Compress Videos with iSkysoft in Steps

Step 1. Load Your Video Files to be Compressed

You can import videos by accessing "Add Files" button on top left, or directly drag and drop files to the video compressing software. This video compressor also supports to import video files from mobile devices such as iPhone, Samsung, etc. just click the drop down icon beside to see more importing options.

Step 2. Start to compress video files on Mac or Windows

Once imported videos to be compressed, click the "Settings" icon on the right side of the chosen output format. Then you can lower the value of resolution (important), frame rate and/or bit rate. Then click "Create" and estimated the best video file size that meet your needs.

By the way, you can also compress the video by changing the video format. For example, you can select "FLV" as the output format for your MP4 video.

Step 3. Save the compressed video files

Click "Convert" in the video display clip or "Convert All" at bottom right to export your vidoes after compression, then you will sucessfully shrink video files to smaller size.

Notes on Compressing Videos:

To compress video files with a video compressor, there are 2 options that you can personalize to reduce the size of your video.

o Option 1: Simply select a proper output format to reduce the video size such as MP4, FLV, 3GP, etc. because they are usually smaller than other files due to high compression rate. You can preview the video size on the main window before conversion. But make sure your recipient can play the video in the selected output format.

Option 2: You can set the Codec, Resolution, Frame Rate and Bit Rate to make your file smaller. The settings depend on the size and the quality of the video you want to compress too. Please keep reading to lean basic knowledgements about video compression settings.

Be patient in compressing your video files, because large size and high quality video files can take minutes or even hours to be compressed.

Part 2. Tips on Compressing Video Files

Suggestions for Common Video Compression Settings

Normal Compression: Normal compression reduces the file size and keeps the video quality as much as possible. There are different ways on how to make video files smaller, and the popular ways include re-encoding with an effective video transcoder and using a file compressor.

Loseless Compression: The goal of loseless compression is to contain all quality of the original video. However, this is not so useful because it barely decrease the amount of data on a video. And most people want to do a video compression with the goal of reducing the video size.

There is no compression setting that is suitable for all users. The requirement differs from desired output dimensions, computer performance, specific compression artifacts and many other aspects. Here're some suggestions that might help you to make the best video compression settings for you.

• You're highly recommended to compress your video as H.264 in MOV or MP4 format, because they are usually smaller than other files due to high compression rate.
• The compressed file size totally depends on the compress bit rate. Normally, the smaller video you want, the lower bit rate. The bit rate also controls the image quality. Please mind that the image will totally be destroyed if the bit rate is too low.
• Besides，the codec also influences the compression. Mostly you can select H.264 here.
• In most situations, a ratio of 640 * 480 is sufficient. But it also depends on your need.
• The frame rate, frame size, or codec of the source image doesn't matter so much on video compression.

Knowing the video format, ratio and bit rate that influences the size of compressed video, it'll be much easier for you to select the best video compression settings.

Recommended Video Compression Settings for Youtube & Vimeo

Tips for Compressing Video for Free

There's an easy and free way to compress large videos to small size, on condition that your video is .MOV format and your Mac runs macOS 10.7 or above.

• Navigate MOV video in Finder.
• Right-click the video and select "Encode Selected Movie File" in the following menu.
• Select the resolution that you want to encode the video to. Normally sellecting lower resolution than the original video can resuce the file size.

As a free and easy solution, it only changes the resolution of your MOV video. If you want to make the video smaller, you'll need the help from UniConverter.