Video content is getting more and more popular today. You can take a thousand of photos, but a good video can still tell a better story. The only inconvenience is its size and the issues you may face when transferring large video files online. While sharing a photo is not a problem, video may present more of a challenge. In this post we will have a closer look at how to prepare your large video file for the quickest transfer.
Zip It in Windows
Using your PC, you can compress your video files with an archiver before sending them. Typically, the quality of video is not affected, so you can be sure your original video will still look good when it’s received. There are a lot of file compression tools, both paid and free. To choose one that is right for you, read our article on 5 Best Compression Tools to Prepare for Easy File Transfer
For more information, check out Best Way to Send Large Files by Email
Compress It on a Mac
Things are a bit different on Mac computers, yet it’s still possible to compress files on a Mac. Every Mac comes with iMovie software that is pre-installed and ready to use. The easiest way to prepare your video for transfer is using this as described below:
- Import your videos from the camera or smartphone to your Mac.
- Open it in iMovie.
- Select a piece of video content that you want to share (or you can select the whole video if needed. Just click on the video icon and choose “Compress from”)
- Now you need to export your video, click File > Share > Email and choose Small to make the file size smaller.
This tool actually compresses the video file so you can easily share it online or send via email.
Want to get more interesting tips for Mac? Check out Top 10 tips and timesavers for Mac: how to send large files and more
Convert Video on an Android Device
If you want to compress a video file on your Android device, you need to download and install a special app. There are quite a lot of those that are free, and Video Converter Android is one such option. Usually, the following are the steps you would take to get the job done:
- Import the video you want to compress to Video Converter.
- Find the Convert button at the bottom of the screen.
- You’ll have to select a profile manually, Choose Codec, MPEG-4; FPS, 23.98; Res, 176 x 144; Bitrate, Keep Original.
- The app will minimize the video size so that it would be easier to send it online
Slimming Video on an iPhone
The process for iPhones is very similar. You will need to download and install Video Slimmer.
- Start the app on your device
- The More button lets you choose parameters for the smaller video.
- Import the video to Video Slimmer
- Slim Now button will immediately compress your video with your selected parameters.
Want to know how to make the process of transferring files from phone to computer a piece-of-cake kind of task? Check out this article: Easy Ways of Transferring Files from Phone to Computer
Using the Cloud
Using cloud space like Google Drive or Dropbox is perhaps the easiest way to send big video files online, however this might not work if the recipients are not familiar with these technologies.
If you are using Dropbox, all you have to do is upload your video to a folder and give the recipient access to it. You do not need to minimize video size, it’s okay to use the original file as long as your storage hasn’t reached its limits.
Same with Google Drive, just upload the file and share it with anyone by sending them a link.
To find out how big a file you can share over different services, read this article: How Big a File Can You Send Over the Internet?
One of the easiest solutions to the problem of sending large files is to use file compression software such as the cross-platform program 7-Zip. This is particularly handy if you have multiple files, as you can place these in one folder and compress them all in one go. As a rule of thumb, a large file will transfer faster than a folder containing smaller files of the same size.