Recording High-Definition Video – Your Movie Collection’s File Size Can Easily Balloon Out Of Control: How To Reduce The Size Of 4K Movies

The smartphone, DSLR, and GoPro all record high-definition video. Your movie collection's file size can easily balloon out of control. Be wary when your memory card is full, or you try to share one of these films online.

You can reduce the size of a video clip by compressing or converting to other formats; you can learn to do that here. However, the bad news is that your video will degrade unless you modify certain parameters. How can we achieve a balance between the two? Continue reading to find out.

Why Do We Need to Compress 4K Video?

Although 4K UHD video looks better on wide TVs, the constraints posed by big 4K films necessitate you to limit 4K video file sizes. Let's examine what drives you to compress a 4K movie. There are many challenges with 4K HEVC playback due to incompatibility issues with most devices.

If you often create 4K content, your camera or phone's storage capacity may soon fill up. Video files bigger than 4GB may be prohibited by some computer hard drives, USB drives, and other storage devices. To store a huge 4K video to a FAT32 card, reduce the file size to under 4GB.

Why Is a Smaller File Size Better?

Here is why you need to make your videos smaller:

To Improve Your Workflow

Reducing video file size saves time when working with high-resolution source files like 4K video. Many video files, especially those from high-end cameras, are large and might tax your computer's resources while editing. You can create proxy files that utilize less data while retaining the aspect ratio for faster editing. Compress video files to a suitable format like MP4 to improve process efficiency. After that, when you export, Media Encoder will use your high-res sources.

To Ensure Better User Experience

When you publish a video to Facebook or YouTube, it is compressed to fit various devices. Lowering video file sizes is useful to your audience if you plan on hosting the video yourself or wish to share it more simply. Many consumers watch videos on smartphones, older PCs, or slower Wi-Fi or cellular connections; thus, video content providers must consider this when creating massive high-resolution files. If you submit video content, make sure it's excellent quality and available to the largest possible audience. Reduce the file's resolution or data rate.

Steps To Reduce a Video Size

Here is how you can reduce the size of your video:

1.    Pick the Right Software

You will need a heavy-duty computer that can handle the weight of your videos and the software processing capacity. The best tools for 4k resolution videos are Leawo, Fonepaw, and Winxdvd. Download software whose user interface and features fulfill your video compression requirements.

2.    Begin With the Audio

Examine the audio before reducing the picture quality. Unless your project demands the highest possible audio quality, always start with sound.

• Examine the number of audio tracks. One is sufficient. Extract the English or other language audio from a movie. If you're making a video, keep the first track. Delete the tracks you don't need.
• Under codec, choose AAC (CoreAudio) or MP3. These are lossy audio file formats that can be utilized in many situations. The same lossy formats can be used for concerts and other sound-dependent entertainment.
• The bitrate should be set at 160 for most videos. Choose a higher bitrate for videos with lots of sounds (256 or 320).
• It's ideal to leave the sample rate at Auto, although you can change it to lower the file size. Set it to 32 for human speech and 48 for sound quality.

3.    Choose the Best Codec and Container

For the original video, use the highest quality video codec and container. Choosing the most efficient codec and container reduces file size. Coders and decoders use codecs to convert video into bytes and determine its quality. The container influences device and service compatibility.

Choose H.264 for video codec. In comparison to MPEG-4, this is the most extensively used video compression codec. It's also recognized by your Raspberry Pi and a simple TV. Choose MP4 for the container. MP4 is also the most widely used video file format. YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook all recommend MP4 over others.

4.    Next, Resolution

Most people have HD-ready or full-HD TVs, but visual quality isn't as important as you may think. The resolution affects the size of the movie, but the quality may be comparable to the original. You'll see a considerably greater impact from your viewing distance, the TV's upscaling algorithm, and video bitrate.

Check the video's original resolution and move down one level. If you're only planning to upload to YouTube or Facebook, 720p is best (assuming file size is more important to you than resolution).

5.    Utilize Bitrate

Bitrate is the most critical factor in video quality. Simply put, Bitrate is the amount of data sent per second on-screen. More data means greater video quality. As a result, reducing the Bitrate might significantly reduce the video quality.

Large files result from most DSLR cameras recording video at high bitrates. Again, YouTube gives some criteria for any video you submit. You shouldn't go below these levels, but you can usually go lower if yours is higher.

6.    Change the Frame Rate If Necessary

Never believe anyone who says you should lower the frame rate to reduce video bitrate. Keep your video at the same frame rate. The human eye only requires 24 to 30 frames per second for a good picture, so decreasing the frame rate seems reasonable. But this can wreak havoc on the video's smoothness, ruining it before you even see it.

Conclusion

Using these processes to reduce video file size without sacrificing quality, you should drastically reduce the file size of a video. You may even reach your desired goal size without needing to change the resolution or Bitrate; it's normally preferable to take these processes step by step, altering only what's necessary. After you've figured everything out, you'll be able to play, upload, and broadcast these files from anywhere.