The quality of video cameras is constantly improving. At the same time, the quality of video materials is growing, and, which is absolutely logical, the size of video files. More and more often, uncompressed video is used, the files of which take up a very large disk space.
Necessary
- - computer;
- - the Avidemux program;
- - video file.
Instructions
Step 1
To burn video files to CD or DVD, as well as to post on video hosting sites, you have to either cut a large file into several parts (which is not always desirable), or compress it to an acceptable size. There are many programs available to do this.
Step 2
For example, the free program Avidemux, which is both an editor and a converter, will allow you to solve the problem of reducing the size of a video file in several ways. This program exists in both Windows and Linux versions. Its interface is simple and straightforward.
Step 3
Avidemux has built-in codecs, so you can reduce the file size by changing the codec. This process is called converting. The compression ratio for one codec or another is different and is optimized in this program to maximize the preservation of the default video quality.
Step 4
For example, if you take a video file compressed with the MJPEG codec and convert it to Xvid, the reduction in file size will be significant. An even higher compression ratio will be provided by the FLV codec. Naturally, with increasing file compression, the video quality is somewhat lost.
Step 5
If you are ready to accept the loss of quality to a certain extent, then there is an opportunity to compress the file even more. To do this, after selecting a compression codec in the Video menu, select the Configure tab. In the General tab, you will see a scale with a slider. The scale has gradations from High Quality to Low Quality, that is, from high quality to low quality. The higher the quality, the larger the file size, and vice versa, the lower the quality, the smaller the file size.
Step 6
With strong compression (compression) of a video file, it is impractical to keep the original frame size. Therefore, you can reduce the size of the frame while maintaining its proportions. In Avidemux, this is done like this: in the Video menu, select the Filtres tab, then the Transform tab and the Resize function. Set the new frame size, making sure to keep the aspect ratio. This action will further reduce the size of the video file.
Step 7
In some cases, the video soundtrack is uncompressed. It may also be that the audio quality of the original video file is redundant, for example, in the case of voice recording. By compressing audio, you can also slightly reduce the file size. Select a codec from the Audio menu, for example mp3. Use the Filtres and Configure tabs below to set the compression options for the audio track.
Step 8
To save the resulting file, select File, save, save video from the menu, give the file a new name and extension. Creating a file with new parameters will take some time.
Step 9
The VirtualDub program works in a similar way, but to use it you will need to install a package of video and audio codecs. For example, the K-Lite Codec Pack. These codecs may interfere with Avidemux codecs, therefore it is not recommended to use both of these programs on the same computer.
