How to Reduce MP4 Video Size – 5 Ways

Some users need to compress MP4 video to reduce the size of the video file, because it takes up a lot of space on the computer’s disk, or a very large file size may be an obstacle to uploading to the video hosting.

MP4 (MPEG-4) is a popular digital video container format that includes video and audio streams, subtitles, metadata, and has the “.mp4” extension. When saving a file to MP4, video and audio segments are compressed, resulting in a high-quality video with optimal dimensions, which is easily transferred between devices or uploaded to websites.

The compression ratio of the final video file depends on the format used, the codecs used, and, accordingly, how much space the file occupies on the PC disk. Video in MP4 is already compressed, but there are situations when you need to further reduce the size of MP4.

The file size depends on the quality of the video. After some deterioration in quality, the size of the video file is reduced.

Ways to Reduce MP4 Video Size

First you need to understand some concepts. On the Internet, you can often see the phrase: “compress MP4 video without quality loss” or “reduce the size of MP4 video without quality loss.”

This is a bit of a gimmick for uninitiated users because lossless compression is not true. Any compression implies a loss in certain characteristics of the quality of the original video file.

Another thing is that with certain compression settings, the overall quality of the processed video file will not decrease by much, but during playback, the difference between the original and final video will not be noticeable to users.

In the case of a very large source video file, several methods are used to solve the problem:

• convert video to another format that has a smaller size after processing, all other things being equal;
• compress MP4 video online;
• reduce the size of MP4 video file using the program.

The first option is not always suitable due to the fact that the user does not need to change the file format from MP4 to another format. The second two methods will help solve the problem with a very large file size.

You can reduce the size if you reduce the video resolution, but this option may not be suitable due to the fact that the aspect ratio of the video clip will change, and this is not always suitable.

Problem with large video file

The topic of this article appeared when I was faced with the need to reduce a video file intended for uploading to YouTube. The video was recorded in Camtasia Studio, which, with default settings, saves the video in HML5 video, in MP4 format.

After saving the recorded video on the PC, I found that the video file turned out to be gigantic: more than 600 MB for a 12 minute video is a lot. In addition to YouTube, I store videos in the cloud, so file size matters.

Let’s see the properties of this video file:

1. You need to right-click on the file, select “Properties” in the context menu.
2. In the “Properties: file name” window, you need to open the “Details” tab.
3. In the “Video” section, in the “Bitrate” and “Total bitrate” options, there are values ​​that affect the quality and, accordingly, the file size.

In my case, for unknown reasons, the program processed the video with a bitrate that was 10-20 times higher than usual, so the resulting video file turned out to be huge. Before and after that, Camtasia Studio saved videos with an adequate file size.

To solve the problem, I need to reduce the file size without changing the format and aspect ratio of the video clip. We will use online services on the Internet and programs on the computer.

The following method is used to convert the file:

• MP4 file is converted to MP4 format;
• in the process of processing the file, compression occurs;
• the final file is smaller.

Unfortunately, not all services on the Internet can reduce the size of MP4 videos online. This is due to file upload size limitations or processing time limitations with free usage. Other resources have a limit on the file size that the online service can work with.

This article presents services that can reduce the size of MP4 videos online for free, have no problems downloading relatively large files (up to reasonable limits), as well as free programs that allow you to compress videos.

Compress MP4 video online without quality loss on 123apps

123apps converts different types of files to different formats, including video formats. The “Video Converter Online” page supports uploading videos up to 2 GB in size to the service.

To reduce MP4 size online, follow the steps below:

1. Enter the convert-video-online.com site page responsible for converting video and audio files.
2. Use the “Open File” button to upload a file from your computer, add a file to a URL from the Internet, or upload a video from Dropbox or Google Drive cloud storage.
3. In the “Video” tab, select the format, in this case “mp4”. In the “Resolution” field, leave the “As in the original file” option.
4. Click on the “Settings” button to select the appropriate video and audio codecs. Available video codecs: “H.264 / AVC” (default), “MPEG4” and “H.265 / HEVC”, audio codecs “AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)” or “MP3 (MPEG Audio Layer 2)”. On the scale “Estimated file size” move the slider to the required size of the final file.
5. Click on the “Convert” button.
6. After processing is completed, click the Download button to download the final video to your computer, or send the video to the cloud storage.

How to reduce the size of MP4 online on the service online-converting.ru

The free online video converter at online-converting.ru converts various file formats, including multimedia files.

Do the following:

1. Open the online-converting.ru service page , which is used to work with video files.
2. Click on the “Browse” button to add a local file from a PC, or paste a link to a file from the Internet.
3. In the “To what:” field, select the format, in our case, MP
4. In the “Video bitrate” field, you can specify the desired size (the lower the bitrate, the smaller the size of the final file).
5. The rest of the fields can be left unchanged.
6. Click on the “Convert!” button.

When the video conversion process is completed, in the “Result” field, click on the link to download the file to your computer.

How to Reduce MP4 File Size in Any Video Converter

Any Video Converter has a free version that can convert files of different multimedia formats.

To compress an MP4 video file with Any Video Converter , follow the steps below:

1. In the main window of Any Video Converter, click on the “Add Video” button, or drag and drop a video into the program window.
2. Click on the “Select output profile” button, “Customize MP4 Movie (*.mp4)” will do for us.
3. In the “Basic settings” section, select the output directory, the video size is “Original”, the quality is “Normal”.
4. In the “Video Options” section, you can select the codec: “x264”, “x265”, “mpeg4”, “xvid”. In the “Video bitrate” field, set an individual bitrate.
5. Click on the “Convert!” button.

After the process is completed, open the processed file on your computer.

Reducing the size of an MP4 video in Format Factory

Now the Format Factory program will help us compress MP4 video . Format Factory is a free program for converting multimedia files.

Go through the steps:

1. Drag the video file into the Format Factory window.
2. In the window that opens, select the format – MP
3. Click on the “Metric” button.
4. In the Video Setup window, select the appropriate profile. Available profiles with different quality options: “DIVX”, “AVC”, “HEVC” and “Expert”. I choose “Expert”.
5. In the “Size” setting, in the “Value” field, select the desired size from those available in the program. Click the Video Codec option to select a setting. The “Value” field has the following options: “MPEG-4 (DivX)”, “MPEG-4 (Xvid)”, “AVC (H264)”, “AVC (H264_NVENC)”, “HEVC (H265)”, “HEVC (H265_NVENC)”, “Copy” (copy of the original). The remaining parameters can be left untouched.
6. Click on the “OK” button in both open windows.
7. In the main window of the Format Factory program, click on the “Start” button.

After the conversion is completed, open the MP4 file on your computer.

Convert MP4 to Hamster Free Video Converter

Hamster Free Video Converter is a free program for converting multimedia files, converting videos for various devices.

In Hamster Free Video Converter , follow these steps:

1. Drag a video file to the application window or add a video using the button in the program window.
2. Click on the “Next” button.
3. In the “Formats and Devices” section, select the format – MP4, and then apply the necessary settings: select the video codec, bit rate, video quality.
4. Click on the “Convert” button.

After the conversion is finished, open the finished video file on your computer.

Article Conclusions

If necessary, the user can compress the MP4 video to reduce the file size. You can use the services of online services that process video on the Internet, or with the help of free programs – video converters installed on your computer.