Simple Program for Video Compression

[duragezic]

I haven't mucked with any video editing in over 10 years when I did stuff with skateboard and snowboarding videos. I imagine things are a lot easier now. Back then you had limited CPU power and getting stuff from analog camcorders wasn't always easy. Lots of trial and error to capture video without dropping frames!

Now I have some videos on my PC that I would like to compress. They are from a camera and even though are only 640x480, are pretty large size for just a minute.

What's a good simple free program to compress these? It would also be cool if I could use it to merge these videos into it, but editing capabilities is not totally required. I don't need to have a lot of options over the encoding, just something simple to compress but keep decent quality.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

MP4 lossless

 

[John Connor]

Freemake?

 

[ronbo613]

Handbrake

 

[jkauff]

Both Handbrake and the less-well-know TEncoder Video Converter are good free choices. If your player can play MKV files, you can use MKVToolnix (also free) to mux them together into an .mkv container file.

 

[lucia]

Handbrake +1

Plus, I suggest Vidcoder

 

[bbhaag]

I like Vidcoder a little better now vs Handbrake. Ever since Handbrake took away the target video size and replaced did with the constant quality I can't stand it.

 

[sm625]

Is there a program that will let me set up an encoding profile, and then let me simply right click on the video file and click choose "convert using profile xxx"? Something really stupidly simple like that?

 

[Kerry56]

Is there a program that will let me set up an encoding profile, and then let me simply right click on the video file and click choose "convert using profile xxx"? Something really stupidly simple like that?

If you want to set up a batch file using ffmpeg, yes, this can be done. Look at this thread over at Videohelp.com:

http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/374178-Right-Click-Convert-tool

They use ffmpeg cli and Default Programs Editor.

 

[sweenish]

I like Vidcoder a little better now vs Handbrake. Ever since Handbrake took away the target video size and replaced did with the constant quality I can't stand it.

I'm guessing you still burn to disc?

That was the only reason to ever target a size. Otherwise constant quality is vastly superior.

 

[duragezic]

I just tried Freemake. They went a little excessive on bundling extra crap with it. Not uncommon for a free program, and no problem, as with anything just pay attention when installing.

In a test with default x264 conversion it reduced the original file (MJPG format) to less than 25% size. And it seems to have a simple join feature.

I will probably check out Handbrake and maybe another to see.

Thanks.

 

[bbhaag]

Is there a program that will let me set up an encoding profile, and then let me simply right click on the video file and click choose "convert using profile xxx"? Something really stupidly simple like that?

I know that Handbrake lets you create different profiles that you can use each time you encode a video that way you don't have to set it up every time. It even has a preview function so you can test a small sample before you start.
As far as just right clicking a file and just automatically starting an encode I don't think that is possible with a gui interface. You will need to load the vid file first into the program and then start it.

I am by no means an expert though so I very well could be wrong.

I'm guessing you still burn to disc?

That was the only reason to ever target a size. Otherwise constant quality is vastly superior.

I rarely burn to disc anymore but I need my vid files to be a particular size and the slider bar just can't do it. The CQ bar may provide a better encode but the file size(for me anyway)was all over the map.

 

[bbhaag]

I just tried Freemake. They went a little excessive on bundling extra crap with it. Not uncommon for a free program, and no problem, as with anything just pay attention when installing.

In a test with default x264 conversion it reduced the original file (MJPG format) to less than 25% size. And it seems to have a simple join feature.

I will probably check out Handbrake and maybe another to see.

Thanks.

Haha yes they do. I still like it though and use it. Like you mentioned, the join feature is very handy. I use the join feature to stitch together vids from our time lapse camera at work. Ya know what....it does a pretty good job.

 

[sm625]

I got it. I created a batch file with the following line

for %%A IN (*.mp4) DO "c:\ffmpeg\bin\ffmpeg" -i "%%A" -c:v libx264 -preset veryslow -crf 32 "%%A.avi"

I place that file into my dropbox camera uploads folder, and run it whenever I get new videos from my phone. It automatically converts all mp4 files to avi and compresses them roughly 10:1. The quality is still very good, because it is set to take the maximum amount of time. It actually takes a shocking amount of time, but its fine since I'm generally in no hurry. To make it go faster you can change veryslow to medium or fast or even veryfast. To reduce the compression level, reduce the number after the -crf. They say a value of 18 is visually lossless.

 

[sweenish]

I rarely burn to disc anymore but I need my vid files to be a particular size and the slider bar just can't do it. The CQ bar may provide a better encode but the file size(for me anyway)was all over the map.

So why do you need a particular file size? Is it a FAT32 thing? Are you not able to use exFAT?

File size changes are affected by a lot of stuff. If the film has heavy grain, you'll get a large file size.

I know I don't miss the days of wonky resolutions and overall poor encodes just to fit a size target. If I encode and one movie is ~8 GB and another is 5, so be it. Both are 1080p and absolutely great looking. If you slow down the encoder (in handbrake), you can get better file sizes without losing quality, but I guess you still can't control the size.