This video comes by way of tech geek extraordinaire Chris Pirillo, as part of his mobile Q&A sessions which he recorded with his iPhone that was mounted on the dashboard of his Prius. He answers the question, “How to decrease video file size” and offers the following advise:
- Keep in mind that anytime you decrease the file size of you video, you are also decreasing the quality.
- Look at originating profile as a frame of reference (resolution, bit rate, codec, frame rate, audio settings, etc.)
- His favorite video encoder of all time is MPEG Streamclip, a free open source video conversion tool for Mac or Windows. While it’s not perfect it is easy to use.
“Video, especially with HD content, can take up a lot of space on your hard drive. Thankfully, there are some easy ways to compress these large files down to a smaller size without doing much to degrade the overall quality.”
Blip.tv also recommends MPEG Streamclip for exporting your Source/Master copy as a Quicktime file for the best result with the following settings:
- Frame Size: 720 x 480 (1280 x 720 if you have a Pro account and would like an HD version as well)
- Video Codec: H.264
- Audio Codec: AAC
- Video Bitrate: 3.5Mbps – 5.0Mbps
- Audio Bitrate: 128 Kbps
- Fast Start Enabled: Yes
For more on specific video profiles to use of online and mobile video, check out these Apple Support Community discussions
YouTube is also full of a variety of videos on this subject, and there are a few good tutorials on using MPEG Streamclip
Download MPEG Streamclip: http://www.squared5.com/
