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Reducing video file size in Windows

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 Enty 02 Apr 2014
I have a 9 minute video I want to upload to faceache but it's 1gb and looks like it's going to take about 2 hours to upload.
Can I reduce the size of it without losing quality?

Cheers,

E
 The Lemming 02 Apr 2014
In reply to Enty:

What format is it in?

H.264 is considered to be one of the best and smallest compression methods for movies.
OP Enty 02 Apr 2014
In reply to The Lemming:

Whoooooosh.

E
 The Lemming 02 Apr 2014
In reply to Enty:

Right click on the file and see what file type it is.

It could be:
MP2
MP4
AVI
DIVX
XVID
H.264
Or something else

The daddy on the block, especially with companies streaming TV shows and movies use H.264.

Basically, you have video footage and you have audio such as music and speach. You then need a way to wrap both of them together and play back in sync.

As time progressed compression technologies have improved to make file sizes smaller while keeping the end product as high a resolution as would be acceptable to the majority of people.
OP Enty 02 Apr 2014
In reply to The Lemming:

It's Mp4 matey.

E
 The Lemming 02 Apr 2014
In reply to Enty:

MP4 and 1Gb in size. That's fookin big. But we both know that.

Your next problem is than MP4 means lots of things as its an umberella file name.

Truthfully, by the time you find some software and let it number crunch to shrink the file size, you will have uploaded it to youtube.

Is this footage taken directly from a video recording thingie?

It could be totally uncompressed footage than needs to be put through the mill and compressed to a file type and size of your choice.

If you thought RAW and JPEGS are complicated then video encoding and rendering will blow a fuse. It feking confuses me too.
 jon 02 Apr 2014
In reply to Enty:

Nine minutes... did it take you that long to climb it?!
OP Enty 02 Apr 2014
In reply to jon:

Lula's first lead outdoors.

E
 The Lemming 02 Apr 2014
In reply to Enty:

May I ask what the event was captured/recorded/videod with?

And how was this footage transferred to your computer?

OP Enty 02 Apr 2014
In reply to The Lemming:

Taken on my Nex 3 camera, uploaded and edited with moviemaker then saved.

E
 The Lemming 02 Apr 2014
In reply to Enty:

One possible bit of software that may help you is Handbrake.
http://download.cnet.com/HandBrake/3000-2194_4-10808250.html

If you are a Window's user you may be able to experiment with Window's Movie Maker. It may allow you to import the footage and converti it to a file format of WMV. This, if it works will be considerably smaller than 1Gb.

The number crunching speed varies depending on how powerful your processor is.
 The Lemming 02 Apr 2014
In reply to Enty:
> Taken on my Nex 3 camera, uploaded and edited with moviemaker then saved.

> E

Something like Handbrake or Adobe Premier Elements 12, Power Director or another bit of software will be able to shrink things down for you.

But it gets really complicated, really quickly with choice of bit rates, image size in pixels and file type such as AVI, MP4 or H.264
Post edited at 22:17
OP Enty 03 Apr 2014
In reply to The Lemming:

Well done mate! Downloaded Handbrake and reduced the video from 0.99gb to 190mb. That's a bit better and whole process took me less than 10 miinutes.

Cheers,

E
 The Lemming 03 Apr 2014
In reply to Enty:

Glad I could help.

Is this your camera?
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/SonyNex5Nex3

If so then I am confused about the size of your 9 minute video being 1Gb. My mate has a video camera that records to digital tape ant that kicks out footage at 1gb per 15 minutes because its raw and uncompressed.

However I only have phones, compacts, tablets and a dSLR and they all shoot in a mode which compresses the file size while recording so that the end result is a more manageable size, much like the 190Mb size you got.

Is it possible to tinker with your camera's settings to stop it capturing in such huge file sizes in relation to the actual time spent filming?

1gb for 9 mins of footage on a digital camera seems a bit OTT.

OP Enty 03 Apr 2014
In reply to The Lemming:

Yes it's a NEx 3 and you're right there is a problem with storage.

There's an 8gb memory card in there but yesterday, after the vid was taken I started taking some shots and the camera said "no room on memory card"
However when I take the card out and slot it into the PC there's only stills showing on the card.
When i plug the camer in to the PC there's allsorts of stuff shows up - videos from last years hols, all sorts.

Any ideas on how I can clean this up and reduce the video size in the camera?

Cheers

E
 The Lemming 03 Apr 2014
In reply to Enty:

> Any ideas on how I can clean this up and reduce the video size in the camera?

> Cheers

> E

Sorry, haven't got a scooby.

You could try re-formatting the card in both the camera and on your computer.

Are there any settings on your camera for adjusting file sizes, format such as MP4/AVI and quality of video recording on your camera?

Maybe a Return to Factory Settings and starting over with the camera, just in case you messed something up while learning how to use the camera when you first got it?

 malk 03 Apr 2014
In reply to The Lemming:
he's lucky- my pentax k-x avi files are about 3min per Gb!
 balmybaldwin 03 Apr 2014
In reply to Enty:

It sounds like it's saving Video files to some kind of internal storage - you might be able to find a setting in the menus on it that allows you to choose where to store stuff?
 Bruce Hooker 03 Apr 2014
In reply to Enty:

If you have time to spare you can reduce these video files a lot using freeware, as you have already done. The problem, if it is one, is that cameras can now take high quality video as well as still images at very high definition so which use a lot of disk space. This isn't too much of a problem generally as cards and hard disks are getting bigger and cheaper every day but when it comes to sending them by internet the same progress hasn't been made. Cameras also tend to use odd formats too. There are web sites dedicated to the question, but you need a lot of spare time if you don't want to buy software, which will be outdated pretty quickly anyway.
 The Lemming 03 Apr 2014
In reply to Enty:

If you want to go down the road of paid for software, I'd suggest getting last year's version of which ever product takes your fancy. I have an old copy of Power Director 8 and love it. I was going to upgrade to version 12 but for some reason it would not play nicely with Time Lapse photography.

But that's not a failing because its a powerful bit of software. Power Director is on version 12 but last year's copy is almost half the price. This will allow you to edit your movies and convert to loads of formats with a plethora of file sizes.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cyberlink-PowerDirector-11-Ultra-PC/dp/B009QVVOD6/r...


You could download this year's version and trial it for a month before deciding. Be careful as its a complex beast but Youtube is your friend with tutorials.

http://www.cyberlink.com/downloads/trials/index_en_GB.html
In reply to Enty:

> Can I reduce the size of it without losing quality?

In a word: unlikely. Quality and file size are trade-offs.

Want good quality? Then you'll need a big file.

Want a small file? then you'll get reduced quality (e.g. blockier/blurrier images, blurring on fast scene cuts, colour/intensity 'rainbowing')

Different compression methods might give you some scope for reducing file size, but not a vast difference. (cf. AAC vs MP3 vs WMA audio file size and quality; MP3 generally requires a bigger file for equivalent perceived audio quality)

> edited with moviemaker then saved

I'd be tempted to look closely at the settings of MovieMaker; I think it ought to have the ability to set the output compression format, the resolution (pixel dimensions, e.g. HD or standard PAL image size), and the image quality factor. I'd hope it would also be able to save a 'project' at highest available (from source media) format. But just because I think that it ought to, doesn't mean it does...
OP Enty 03 Apr 2014
In reply to Enty:
Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm happy with the quality of the vid from 0.99gb to 190mb using Handbrake.

Next thing for me to do is look at the way my camera is storing stuff and get on top of that.

Cheers,

E
Post edited at 18:29
OP Enty 03 Apr 2014
In reply to balmybaldwin:

> It sounds like it's saving Video files to some kind of internal storage - you might be able to find a setting in the menus on it that allows you to choose where to store stuff?

I'll have a look.

Cheers,

E
OP Enty 06 Apr 2014
In reply to balmybaldwin:

Sussed this out now. The vids were going to another part of the memory card. So I've been downloading photos and deleting them over the last year or so but not the videos which have gradually used up all the space.
I imported everything last night and formatted the card so now I have a fresh start. This should give me about 40m of video on the highest setting.

Cheers,

E

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