We bring you a collection of ways to compress a video without losing quality so that it takes up less space and looks practically the same.
Some methods and services allow you to compress videos, but some too-aggressive ones have too much impact on their quality. Today we will tell you how to do it while keeping this quality to the fullest.
And if I tell you to keep the quality to the maximum, it’s because there’s always going to be some difference. If the video size is reduced, it is because there is data that is deleted. For example, the data rate or bitrate of the video is lowered, which can have a great impact on quality, although it is lowered so that it is not a very noticeable loss. And if you want to do something smaller, there are always sacrifices you’re going to have to make.
The article is going to start with a small list in which we will propose several solutions to compress your video. And then, we’ll go on to explain step by step how to use two of these solutions. Some of the alternatives will be web pages.
Here, you should always be careful when uploading your videos to an external website, as some may store your data or the video itself on the servers. It is always best to work locally on your computer.
10 Apps and Websites to Compress Your Videos
1. VLC
The legendary VLC is one of the best-known video player apps in the world, which stands out for its versatility and for being able to play almost any format. Well, it also has a function with which you can compress videos by choosing the way you’re going to do it or the output format. Go to its official website.
2. HandBrake
An open-source tool that you can download on Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux, and serves to change the format of a video, being able to reduce its weight, add subtitles, and several other options. It is very flexible when it comes to reducing the size of the video, being able to eliminate audio tracks that you don’t need, changing the resolution or codec of the video, or changing its bit rate or frames. Go to its official website.
3. VideoSmaller
In addition to installable apps, there are also some websites that you can use for this same purpose. This website allows you to reduce the videos by choosing the compression level or if you want to change their resolution. It does so entirely online, with support for MP4, AVI, MPEG and MOV formats, and the promise that the video you upload will be erased within a few hours. Being free has an important limitation: the video you upload cannot take more than 500 MB. Go to its official website.
4. Shotcut
It is a very complete video editor in which you will encounter multiple editing options. But what concerns us here is that it also allows you to convert videos by changing the format so that they take up less space without losing quality. Little else, considering that it is a free version but with paid features. It has versions for Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux. Go to its official website.
5. YouCompress
This website allows you to compress one or more videos in an extremely simple way. Just upload the video and press a button to have it compressed automatically. In addition, the web also promises to immediately delete videos from your server. It supports MP4, MOV, MP3, PDF, PNG, JPEG, JPG, GIF, TIFF, DOC, XLS, PPT, ODT, APK and WAV formats. Go to its official website.
6. Movavi Video Converter
This is a reference tool for converting videos, changing the format or compressing them without loss of quality to occupy less. Among others, it works with MP4, 3GP, AVI, MPEG, DivX, FLV, SWF, VOB, MKV, MOV, WebM or WMV formats, and is one of the few compressors that allow you to work with 4K. It is available for Windows and macOS, and its free version is a little limited by having other paid versions. Go to its official website.
7. AConvert
Actually, this is a website designed only to change the format of a video, although it allows you to maintain quality or change aspects such as bitrate, appearance, size or frame rate. You can only upload videos up to 200 MB, but you can use videos online, from Google Drive or Dropbox, and it supports MP4, AVI, FLV, MPG, MKV, WMV, M2TS, WEBM, ASF, MOV, M4V, RM, VOB, OGV or GIF formats. Go to its official website.
8. Free HD Video Converter
A tool for Windows designed to download it and be able to compress videos using different mechanisms with which to reduce the size while maintaining the maximum quality. It has a bar with which to decide if you want more compression or more quality so that you can know visually how much you will lose. Go to its official website.
9. ClipChamp
A free website that allows you to upload videos and edit them in various ways, including compressing them. You’re going to need to sign in with your Facebook or Google account or sign up with mail, and when you upload a video you’ll have to choose which format or usage you want to optimize it for, and the compression will be higher or lower depending on this. Many advanced features are reserved for the paid version. Go to its official website.
10. VEED
VEED – Simple online video editing to create professional content to grow your audience online.
Use VEED.IO to build your social following, creating engaging marking content, education videos and pretty much any other type of video content. Veed editing tools are designed for creating engaging social content, not films and TV shows. Veed was built so you can make great content fast and the editor was designed to be simple so no previous experience is needed.
How to compress a video with VLC without losing quality
Let’s explain how to compress a video losing the minimum possible quality using VLC, as it is an app that you may already have installed, so you don’t need to download another one on purpose. To get started,
- Open VLC without having to do it with any video;
- In the top menu click Media, and when the options are displayed;
- Tap the Convert option. You can open it directly by pressing Control + R at the same time;
- The Open Media screen will open;
- Here, on the File tab, click the Add button to open the file explorer so you can add the video you want to compress;
- Once done, tap Convert/Save to proceed to set up compression
- You will enter the Convert window, where you have to configure everything.
- The first thing is to open the Profile drop-down to select the video format in which you want to save it. It can be the same format you already have right now, and the recommended one is MP4.
- Once chosen, click the edit profile button to the right of the selected profile with a wrench icon;
- Enter the Profile Editing window, where you have to look at its tabs. In the Encapsulation tab, you have to select MP4/MOV to be the same as the profile you chose in the previous step;
- Now, go to the Video Codec tab. Inside you’ll have three other eyelashes. In the Encoding Parameters, you have to leave everything as it is, which is with the same H-264 codec, without using bitrate or quality, and with the same frame rate as the original source or video;
- Now, on the Resolution tab, in the Scale value type 1. This is the last change you have to make now, so once you’ve made it click the Save button. If anything, at most it goes into the Audio Codec tab to check that the Audio option is selected and that the video does not run out of it, but this will come by default.
- Then tap Export to decide which folder you want to save the resulting video to after compression. You’ll need to do this within the file explorer to open;
- Tap the Start button to start compressing the video.
This process may take a few minutes, and you will be able to see the evolution of the status in the VLC playback bar. Wait for the video to finish compressing without touching anything in VLC so that there are no errors, and when it’s finished you can start using it.
How to compress a video online without losing quality
Of all the alternatives we have given you, to make this process online we will choose VideoSmaller since I like its balance between simplicity and results.
- Go to videosmaller.com;
- Scroll to the yellow square;
- In the yellow square, click the Browse button;
- Choose the video you want to compress when the file explorer opens;
- Once you have selected the video you want to compress, check the Box for Use low compression level. With this, what you will be doing is telling the web that you want to compress the video a little, and thus keep the highest possible quality, and the one closest to the original. You don’t have to touch anything else. The website will still give you the option to re-emphasize the video to give it another size or to delete the audio track, but it is best not to touch it so that the highest quality is maintained
- Now, just tap the Upload Video button that you’ll see in green and wait a few minutes.
The website will take care of the rest, upload and compress the video automatically, and once it is finished it will show you a link in which you will see the current size and the difference in its weight with respect to the original. When this happens, click on the link where it says Download File and you will proceed to download the already compressed video.
