Utility to reduce video file size without sacrificing quality

Is there any program available that could be used to reduce sizes of video files to manageable amounts(~200 mb or less for a 1 gb file maybe) without sacrificing their quality or clarity to a great extent so that they can be easily shared on file hosting sites or sent as email attachments?

I tried using some converting apps like total video converter ,but after using them size of the converted video file increased (despite selecting a 480p resolution as compared to 720p of the original file),rather than decreasing.Reducing bitrate etc degraded the quality so much that the converted video was practically useless.

If you know of any such programs or utils(preferably free ones) then please let me know,thanks a lot.

R

You will have to mention what is the original Video format and the size of the video screen for final viewing.
A smaller screen size will mean you can getaway with a much higher compression and a smaller file size. If the original video is from a DVD or Blue ray, you can reduce it to about 1/10 the size without loosing noticeable quality.
But if it is for use on a TV of 32 inches or more, you cannot compress it much, or not compress it at all.

Any conversion / compression process is at the cost of quality. It is a trade off between quality and File size.

There are a number of free wares available. I stick to the very versatile FFMPEG encoder with a GUI - Handbrake / Avanti.
I also use VLC player.
If you take the trouble to read and understand FFMPEG, you can do almost anything using the CLI.

quicky008 said:
Is there any program available that could be used to reduce sizes of video files to manageable amounts(~200 mb or less for a 1 gb file maybe) without sacrificing their quality or clarity to a great extent so that they can be easily shared on file hosting sites or sent as email attachments?

I tried using some converting apps like total video converter ,but after using them size of the converted video file increased (despite selecting a 480p resolution as compared to 720p of the original file),rather than decreasing.Reducing bitrate etc degraded the quality so much that the converted video was practically useless.

If you know of any such programs or utils(preferably free ones) then please let me know,thanks a lot.

You'll have to transcode it to H.265 but it is heavily CPU-bound. Other option is to upload it to youtube and set the video as private.

Thanks for the inputs,the files i was referring to were mp4 files that were captured using a screen recorder program(ice cream recorder)at 900p resolution at high settings.Reducing it to medium does reduce its file size but not by a significant margin.

@SaiyanGoku :Can you please suggest some utils that allow this conversion?

quicky008 said:
Thanks for the inputs,the files i was referring to were mp4 files that were captured using a screen recorder program(ice cream recorder)at 900p resolution at high settings.Reducing it to medium does reduce its file size but not by a significant margin.

@SaiyanGoku :Can you please suggest some utils that allow this conversion?

Upload to youtube then. I use OBS to record screen. It does a pretty good job.

W

quicky008 said:
Thanks for the inputs,the files i was referring to were mp4 files that were captured using a screen recorder program(ice cream recorder)at 900p resolution at high settings.Reducing it to medium does reduce its file size but not by a significant margin.

@SaiyanGoku :Can you please suggest some utils that allow this conversion?

That means original files are already compressed by quite a bit so not much further compression possible without sacrificing quality by a significant amount.

quicky008 said:
@SaiyanGoku :Can you please suggest some utils that allow this conversion?

You can give Handbrake a shot but it would need a good CPU.

i used handbrake and it managed to reduce the size of a 700mb 720p mp4 movie to around 300 mb on using the fast 480p preset and vp9 encoding(webm).

But the problem is it takes quite a lot of time and uses up 70-80% of the cpu.My cpu (an old Q9400) tends to heat upto the 80s while running this app.

quicky008 said:
i used handbrake and it managed to reduce the size of a 700mb 720p mp4 movie to around 300 mb on using the fast 480p preset and vp9 encoding(webm).

Movies? I thought you are trying to convert screen recording.

quicky008 said:
But the problem is it takes quite a lot of time and uses up 70-80% of the cpu.My cpu (an old Q9400) tends to heat upto the 80s while running this app.

SaiyanGoku said:
it would need a good CPU.

That's what Handbrake (or any other reputed encoder) is supposed to do. :lol:

yeah,for testing i tried converting a 700 mb movie file and it did work.On selecting very fast 480p preset,the file size reduces even further.

R

quicky008 said:
i used handbrake and it managed to reduce the size of a 700mb 720p mp4 movie to around 300 mb on using the fast 480p preset and vp9 encoding(webm).

But the problem is it takes quite a lot of time and uses up 70-80% of the cpu.My cpu (an old Q9400) tends to heat upto the 80s while running this app.

Video encoding (compression) is a software oriented process and will use your CPU to the maximum. A slow CPU will take a long time. In my Pentium IV days, I used it leave the process running overnight.

i use handbrake for reencoding large video files these days-it works amazingly well and can reduce file sizes to a great extent

quicky008 said:
yeah,for testing i tried converting a 700 mb movie file and it did work.On selecting very fast 480p preset,the file size reduces even further.

If you have a good enough GPU, you can use that also on Handbrake. It should be significantly faster than your CPU.

*www.ryananddebi.com/2020/06/26/han...:text=To change from CPU encoding,265 (NVenc)

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Honest opinion: You won't do it for long

Don't bother.