How To Reduce Video Size Without Loss Of Quality?

The video industry is gaining momentum these days. When working with video files, there is often a need to reduce their size. But why? The device you want to use may not always be able to play them, since some devices don’t support specific formats.

To avoid facing this, there are cross-platform media tools like MXF file converters. This data exchange format is widely used for processing and storing audio and video files. It allows combining video, audio, and metadata easily, compressed with a different algorithm into one media file. MXF is supported by most hardware and software vendors. Though incompatible with many media players, videos of this format are usually converted to MP4, AVI, and others.

In this article, you’ll learn about video file conversion, how it affects its quality, and face good examples of converters that are worth taking into account.

How to convert video?

Converting it’s transformation of a video file from one format to another with the ability to change the clarity, aspect ratio, resolution, and bitrate. Now that the answer to the question of how to reduce video size when converting is obvious, let’s consider the following aspects affecting its size.

• Resolution

It’s the number of pixels the video contains. Typically, pixel size is measured in horizontal and vertical units. For example, there is HD resolution, which is 1920 x 1080 (or 1080p). Other resolutions correspond to higher or lower definition video quality (2160p, 1440p, 1080p, etc.).

But what resolution to use? It depends on the device you play the video on. If it’s a monitor that generally doesn’t exceed 1080p, that resolution will be fine when streaming videos to YouTube. 1080p as well as 1440p are fine for 4K TV screens.

If you are a smartphone user, remember: different mobile devices have various screen sizes, pixel densities, and resolutions. Nowadays, there are quite a lot of smartphones with high-resolution screens, so the video resolution must match them.

• Bitrate

A bitrate is the number of bits that are used to transmit or process data per second. For instance, YouTube recommends using a video bitrate of 8 Mbps at the standard frame rate and 12 Mbps at a high frame rate for 1080p resolution, 720p at 5 Mbps and 7.5 Mbps, respectively.

But using a variable bitrate will be the best option that allows the video to go down or rise above the main bitrate. By this approach, a file transmits more information during those frames where it’s needed, therefore, its quality will be higher.

• Encoding

The encoding consists of a media container and a codec. The most popular and effective video compression method that slightly reduces the quality is H.264 encoding with an MP4 encoder. To transform, you can choose a fitting format and size. However, keep in mind that file compression almost always leads to quality reduction.

How to choose a good video converter?

The modern software industry offers a large number of paid and free video editing software. All of them have their features and are intended for specific purposes. However, there are main criteria the good converter should meet, whether it’s a YouTube converter or any other:

• An intuitive interface
• Support for a large number of formats
• High-quality video processing

• High-speed conversion

• Flexible system of output video quality settings

• Availability of ready-made video profiles for devices and popular sites (Facebook, YouTube)

• Video-editing features

Top 3 video converters

Now that we are familiar with the selection criteria for a video converter, it’s worth highlighting the following three free video converters.

1. Freemake

Freemake is the perfect program that provides the ability to convert videos between over 500 popular (MP4, AVI, DVD, MPEG, HD, SVF, etc.) and rare formats. You can even upload your photos and audio files to turn them into videos and work on converting several records at once.

Furthermore, it allows you to convert them for any kind of device – Android and iPhone, Samsung, Nokia, Xiaomi, iPad, Sony PSP, BlackBerry, Xbox, and even smartwatches, consoles, and tablets. Freemake will help you convert subtitled movies, download YouTube videos, edit, copy, and upload them to the Internet.

2. AVC

Any Video Converter is an excellent variant if you need to convert your video to multiple formats. It’s compatible with over 200 formats (including DVD, H264, DVD ISO, 4K, etc.). AVC also supports over 100 online video and audio sharing sites (Facebook, YouTube, Howcast, Vimeo).

Besides, it has a high conversion speed due to NVIDIA CUDA acceleration technology and AMD APP Encoder.

3. Clideo

Clideo is a versatile service that brings together the most popular video creation and editing tools. All of them are divided into separate editors: the first one is for trimming videos, the second is for combining several fragments, adding music, the third is for cropping the video, changing its size, etc. This program is suitable for those who like simple interfaces. Clideo also supports all popular video formats without quality restrictions. Among the advantages is the opportunity for registered users to store the finished video material in their accounts for 24 hours.

Summary

Any video converter is designed for modifying it from one format to another with its accompanying editing. To find a balance between high quality and low video size, it’s needed to experiment with several programs. 

It’s extremely important whether you post your video on the Internet because your viewers should get good-quality products. So, check different bitrates and resolutions to see how they affect the quality, dig into encoding settings to see how they affect the size of your record.

Moving from one set to the next, you can find the ideal settings that will allow you to reduce the size of your video file. Regardless of the platform or cloud solution you use, this method will save you money and time. Eventually, you’ll find an appropriate software and succeed!