Compressing/zipping MP4 files - how please?

[Riley Blue]

I need to upload MP4 video files for medical reasons but there's a 1GB limit and some I need to send are much larger. Can I compress or zip them easily on my laptop or PC?

[dxg]

MP4 files are already heavily compressed, although it depends on which codec is within the MP4 wrapper.

Your best option might be to re-render to a lower resolution or using, H.265 rather then H.264 as the codec.

Try downloading Handbrake and seeing what's what.

Be warned, though - re-rendering video takes a very long time unless you have a very powerful machine.

[snuffy]

If you zip an MP4 file it wont get any smaller. In fact it will most likely make it slightly bigger

Right-click on the file in Explorer and you will see various options, most likely "Other actions" and the "Compress".,it all depends what you have installed on your PC.

[thinkofaname]

Is the limit per file, or total? Software such as 7-Zip can create archives that consist of several files of a maximum size that you specify. But as others have said the total size won't be any smaller than the original MP4 file.

[king arthur]

Handbrake is the best idea, just load up your video, choose an appropriate profile, go to the video tab and set the RF slider to a higher number, the higher it is the more it will compress the video but the lower the quality will be. But you should find you can compress it quite a lot before you notice.

[FlyingPanda]

Can you just send them a link via Dropbox or similar? Probably easier than trying to send the files directly.

[Riley Blue]

The limit per file is 1GB, some of those I need to send are 6GB. They can't accept them on a memory stick so if I'm unable make your suggestions work I'll take in my laptop and show them on it.

[mmm-five]

What resolution/length/fps are the videos?

If they're 4K and 1hr long then you may have some very large files...but you should be able to trim/scale/transcode them to something smaller...for example I've got some 4k footage at 24 FPS in H264 (HVEC MAIN 10) and it's about 1.5GB per hour or 800MB per hour at 1080p.

[otolith]

Riley Blue said:

The limit per file is 1GB, some of those I need to send are 6GB. They can't accept them on a memory stick so if I'm unable make your suggestions work I'll take in my laptop and show them on it.

Use 7Zip to split the files.

[carl_w]

otolith said:

Use 7Zip to split the files.

Can the files be reconstituted without the use of 7Zip on the receiving end?

[otolith]

carl_w said:

Can the files be reconstituted without the use of 7Zip on the receiving end?

I don’t know whether any other tools support that format, but some sort of tool will be needed.

[Phunk]

Don't zip or anything like that, use handbrake as mentioned above.

(I'm a video editor)

[wombleh]

I don't know 7zip but if it can just create ZIP files with each containing a chunk of the original, the receiver can use normal Windows zip to depack them, then in command prompt run "copy /b file1 + file2 + file3 output.mp4" to recombine it. Depends on how technical and keen they are, I'd try to downscale it first with handbrake/ffmpeg/etc.

[biggiles]

Riley Blue said:

The limit per file is 1GB, some of those I need to send are 6GB. They can't accept them on a memory stick so if I'm unable make your suggestions work I'll take in my laptop and show them on it.

Are these medical videos each an hour long? You may not be able to compress them further if so. If they are a minute each and 6GB then something is off, and they should be easily compressible with tools like Handbrake.

But even if they were 1GB (and depending upon your fibre connection) they will take a long time to upload. Taking in a laptop and playing it for an hour might be easiest!

[Steve_H80]

Riley Blue said:

I need to upload MP4 video files for medical reasons but there's a 1GB limit and some I need to send are much larger. Can I compress or zip them easily on my laptop or PC?

Try contacting the recipient. Assuming they are an organisation they will have dealt with this situation before and might have an upload portal.

[Riley Blue]

Thanks all, 'Handbrake' did the job perfectly!