How to Shrink a Video
Posted on July 21st, 2009 by Marck
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Almost everyone wants to view a high-resolution video, but not everyone has the disk space or the video hardware to view a video at the best possible quality. Sometimes you have to strike a compromise between the quality and the size of the video, but you don’t have to completely give up on it. Here are some ways to shrink a video.
Why Shrink a Video?
Most high-end computers have the disk space and system resources necessary to create, edit, and play back a high-resolution video, but they can be quite expensive and difficult to maintain. Shrinking a video has two advantages:
- Reduced file size. You need a smaller file size if you want to store or reproduce videos. Video files with a small file size are easier to archive, and easier to burn to CDs or DVDs.
- Playback resolution. Not all computers, DVD players, or other home entertainment devices have the hardware specifications needed to play a high-resolution video. To comply with standards and to make sure your video can be played in any video playback device, you may need to shrink it.
Shrinking for Size
One way that you can shrink the video is to change the way it is encoded. Different file formats and codecs have various file sizes that you can use to reduce the file size of the video without affecting the video resolution. You simply have to load the video on a video editing program (like Adobe Premiere or even Windows Movie Maker), and save the video in a file codec of your choice.
Not all codecs, however, can be recognized by computers or video playback machines. While it’s easy to download a codec for a computer, some playback devices (like VCD and DVD players) may not be able to recognize the codec of a video stored in a device.
Shrinking for Resolution
If you want maximum compatibility with media players, you may need to shrink the video based on available resolutions. There are two ways to accomplish this task:
- Compression. MPEG file compression is the industry standard for encoding video files. You can compress your video in such a way that you can optimize storage space, but it comes at the expense of video quality.
- Video resolution. Videos, like images, come in different screen resolutions depending on the video’s area. While videos encoded in 1024 x 768 are common, the screen resolution of some videos may be reduced to as low as 320 x 240 to make them easier to send through e-mail, or if you plan on distributing multiple videos on a disc. The video quality will not be as fine as one encoded in high resolution, but you can store more videos on a storage device with this method.
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