Raw video file sizes can be enormous. Thankfully, video compression allows you to reduce the number of bits needed to represent video files without any quality loss. Typically, this is done to facilitate internet video transmission, since the smaller the file size, the more efficient the process will be.

Once you’re done reading, you will understand video compression fundamentals, as well as how to reduce a video file size without it losing quality. Your video compression efforts will see you execute the process in one of two ways. There is lossy compression and lossless compression.

Lossy Compression

This is the more commonly used compression style of the two. It’s the one that people traditionally associate with the process. To minimize the resulting file size, the original video has parts deemed unnecessary removed. For example, these could be image sequences or sounds that are being repeated.

Considering that the video codecs used are respectable, you tend to find that the rendering quality resulting from this process is often not bad. If you look back to the DVD days, the MPEG-2 codec was used to dramatically reduce file sizes, but the visual and audio quality would often not suffer severely.

Be that as it may, there can be situations in which a lot of video information is lost and the drop in quality becomes super obvious.

Nevertheless, if you need to reduce a file size, you don’t mind a potential quality drop, or your video hosting platform will do a rendering improvement, then lossy compression could work.

Lossless Compression

The name gives this one away, and even if not, you would expect it to be the opposite of the previous option. With this compression method, there is no loss in video or audio quality, which makes this undoubtedly the better way to go outside of very specific scenarios.

However, the reduction in file size is not going to be as significant as lossy compression. Referring to the DVD compression example with the MPEG-2 codec, it wouldn’t be farfetched to get a file 20 times as small as the original.

However, if quality matters to you at all and you don’t mind their file size not being super small, then you want a video compressor that provides you with the lossless variety.

What Effects Does Video Compression Have on Your Files?

Now you may be wondering what the specific effects are when you compress video files. First, there’s the bitrate that speaks to the processed number of bits in your video sequence. This will be expressed in multiples of bits per second. Whatever method you use will eliminate any unneeded bits per timeframe.

The file size is next, and you pretty much know what to expect here. Uncompressed videos are deemed to have more data than necessary, and the removal of same means that you will have a smaller file.

Finally, there is the rendering quality, and this will depend on the type of compression you use. While lossy compression will see anywhere between a slight to significant quality drop, you would be hard-pressed to identify a difference with lossless compression.

Compression Formats and Codecs You Need to Know

An important point to note is that video compression formats and video codec formats are not the same thing. For reference, “codec” is a term that stands for coder and decoder. Put simply, these are the specific compressing elements in the tools you use. A few of the main formats to keep in mind are:

• MPEG-2
• AVI
• VP9
• H.264 (AVC)
• H.265 (HEVC)

Whenever encoding or decoding happens, metadata, codecs, subtitles, and more are grouped into components, which are packaged into the resulting video file format. This is effectively your final compressed video, which can be in a series of formats such as MP4 and MOV.

Wrapping Up: What to Do When You’re Ready to Compress Video Files

So, now that you have an idea of how things work behind the scenes, what do you do when you’re ready to start compressing?

Simply head to your compression platform, choose your files, select your compression options, and let the site do the rest.