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reduce file size of video

How do I reduce the file size of videos to allow them to be used on web sites with small file size limitations. All of the posts seem very old on this subject. There is a little on the web about QuickTime but I can't get that to work. Do I have to buy some app to do this? I know how to trim to reduce the length. It's the final file size I don't know how to do. I have 2 y/o MacBook Pro and Catalina latest version.


Thanks


Carl

iMac, OS X 10.11

Posted on May 19, 2020 2:00 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 19, 2020 2:52 PM

What format are the videos you're wanting to reduce: 1080p, 720p or 480p? If anything other than 480p try exporting at 480p with Quicktime Player.



Or in iMovie export according to one of these formats:



Email will reduce a 729MB file to around 31MB. You can check the others as to what size they will export to, i.e. image side as well as file size.


4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 19, 2020 2:52 PM in response to Carl Sutherland

What format are the videos you're wanting to reduce: 1080p, 720p or 480p? If anything other than 480p try exporting at 480p with Quicktime Player.



Or in iMovie export according to one of these formats:



Email will reduce a 729MB file to around 31MB. You can check the others as to what size they will export to, i.e. image side as well as file size.


May 21, 2020 3:22 PM in response to Old Toad

Thank you for your response. You have always been extremely helpful for me in the past.


I have tried and tried and have not accomplished what I want which is to cut this video down to less than 8 MB for Discord publication. Not only that, I don't think I can now get back to my original video to start over. I can't see the format in photos so I don't know what # it was. In trying to get it into QuickTime or iMovie I have great trouble moving it around. At one time it looked like recording my screen might be OK and wasn't and I suspect was where I lost a lot of the original video. I suspect there may be a simple way to do this, but after I cut it down I need to get it back into Photos to get into Discord and moving it around seems to be beyond my skills. I did try the email but I still had 19 mb. I tried What's App but couldn't get it back into Photos. If there is an app I can buy from the App Store you recommend I am happy to purchase it to get around what is an unsurmountable problem for me. It may be I am untrainable!!!


Again, I thank you for your attempt at helping me. I don't blame you for throwing up your hands at this point, but if you have any more suggestions I would like to see them


Thanks


Carl

May 25, 2020 12:01 PM in response to Old Toad

I have looked into this more and I can drag and drop and not have to go through Photos. I got it into QuickTime, trimmed it, got it into 480, but it still is too large. I then opened it in Finder and clicked the Compressed tab and still too large. Maybe I didn't do that right and it did not compress. The limit is 8Mb and I can only get down to about 14 Mb. any other suggestion with working through drag and drop?


I looked into Handbrake. Wow what you have to go through.


Thank you again


Carl

reduce file size of video

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