How to Reduce Video File Size Without Losing Image Quality

[@mortenwammen4159]

For audio, you should just use the passthrough option, running it through a lossy compression a second time is just asking for a bad experience, one where you can not quite put your finger on what is wrong, but it is unsatisfactory.

[@Britec09]

Thanks

[@davidthescottishvegan]

Another fantastic video Britec09 and thanks 👍 for the information.

[@Britec09]

Any time!

[@DavidM2002]

Your timing is perfect as I've just come home from a long motorcycle trip using an Akaso action cam ( like a GoPro ). This thing produces HUGE files. This is exactly how I reduce the file size but you have been far more adventurous in changing the settings. I have been using the preset for Android and the results are pretty good but only gives about a 35% file size reduction. I'm going to run a few more experiments with your ideas and save them as custom presets for future use. Well done. And, thank you fellow commenters for you insights as well. Time to create an Excel settings spreadsheet and get to work.

[@Britec09]

Sounds great!

[@NonLegitNation2]

what kind of cpu do you have. Just asking because using Super HQ 2160p60 4K AV1 Surround, but changing the Resolution Limit to None and then changing the Video Encoder to AV1 10-bit (SVT) with the video quality slider at 15 has given me awesome results. I encoded a 4k 60fps video that was 11GB and it reduced it down to 1.89GB with practically no video quality loss that I could see. The only problem is AV1 10-bit SVT is very CPU intensive so you have to have a top tier cpu.

[@Jon717]

You should change your title to "How to Reduce Video File Size With Minimal Quality Loss" because there's always going to be quality loss with encoding. There's no way to avoid quality loss when it comes to Handbrake. The only real way to reduce a video file's size with zero image quality loss would be to remux and remove any unneeded tracks or by only encoding the audio.

[@UltraLowMuzik]

You can not upgrade audio quality, only downgrade it.

[@JimAntonopoulos]

Neither video quality can be improved.

[@corel965]

Logic

[@Britec09]

Never said upgrade your audio. Said tweak audio settings, you need to wash your ears out.

[@Britec09]

@JimAntonopoulos Never said improve video quility, you are coming across as a troll.

[@edtechsolutions694]

​@@Britec09 People need to listen carefully before commenting, otherwise they mess up things. Thanks for the video Brian.

[@antoniiocaluso1071]

EXACTLY 🙂...Handbrake is the ONLY software one needs to operate 3x's to "get it right"! haaaa....please, someone please create a more "specific" GUI for this wonderful Program. The Tools are there, for sure. Excellent Tool...if one is Patient. haa

[@proulxr2002]

I have used this program to upscale 720P videos as well as downgrade 4K videos. Thank you for the additional information I was not aware of. It's a great program.❤

[@akyhne]

You can't upscale video with Handbrake.

[@zeroturn7091]

@@akyhne??? Maybe upscale isn’t the correct term, but I have converted a DVD rip to 4K. One job took 12 hours, and the deinterlacing made the video quality look like dogs***.

[@akyhne]

@@zeroturn7091 Yeah, you need to use something like Topaz Labs Video AI for that kind if work. I've heard Handbrake's deinterlacer is pretty decent. Maybe the problem was, that you both de-interacted and resized at the same time? Im not dure why you would resize to 4K via Handbrake. For instance, if you wanna play the video on a TV, most TVs have a decent upscaler built in. It happens on the fly, during playback, but is nothing like a true upscaling via Topaz Video AI. But what you did, adds nothing to the quality. In contrary, it prevents you taking advantage of your TVs upscaler.

[@InBodWeTrust]

11:12 the one on the left is clearly the *smallest* file size video - it even says Mountains2 in the window. 🤦‍♂ Apart from that, good video. 🙂

[@Dinesh-il1hz]

enjoyed this!

[@docholliday1811]

Great video and information. Thank you.

[@Britec09]

Glad it was helpful!

[@toonnut1]

Great video as usual thanks bro 👍

[@Britec09]

No problem 👍

[@tubeDude48]

This program has been around for a long time. It's pretty good.

[@Britec09]

Yeah, does a great job

[@AshwaniKumarSrivastava]

Mountains 2 is HEVC that is H.265 not H.264 🤦‍♂

[@Britec09]

Thanks for sharing

[@JimAntonopoulos]

What title says is not true. When increasing RF (CRF) some of the image quality is lost. It may not be visible that the quality is lower than source with your screen, GPU, graphics settings but actually you lower the quality of the video.

[@Britec09]

I acually said you are losing some qulity, but its not visable and also said not to compress to much.

[@JimAntonopoulos]

I compared it with the title. Title says without losing image quality

[@alenmihelcic8267]

Format factory is fantastic

[@Britec09]

Yes, great software

[@Rood67]

More please!

[@KelticLad]

nice one cheers for sharing

[@Britec09]

Thanks for the visit

[@WiljanWiljan]

Great, thank you

[@Britec09]

You are welcome!

[@ryanzmuda3167]

What about VLC

[@celestedunbar8321]

I already use this program to make my mkv files smaller.

[@mirzamulahusejnovic2108]

Is it good?

[@celestedunbar8321]

@@mirzamulahusejnovic2108( yes it is)I have been using it for 10 years off in on

[@ryutenmen]

Unfortunately the "Handbrake" is very buggy when you compress multiple video files in a row or in a batch - it doesn't save them, it doesn't do anything or it doesn't know its batch and only encodes one.

[@NonLegitNation2]

then you aren't doing it right. After you add your batch of videos and selecting a setting are you then clicking Add to Queue > Add All, because that is how you get it to add all of the videos to the queue. And then you click Start Queue. It took me a while to figure that out but after i did I haven't had any problem with it encoding multiple files in a row.

[@ryutenmen]

@@NonLegitNation2 I see. Thanks. I'll try.

[@GamingMutasim]

Thanks

[@Britec09]

Welcome

[@MiCHIBiKU_]

Why Handbrake though?

[@Britec09]

Its just a tutorial, use whatever you like.

[@cipherthedisaster]

did not work, it in fact, went up, it went from 87mb to 134mb, it is 6am and this is due in a few hours i am desperate

[@thisoldminer]

Thx but I think to compare properly it should be full screen.

[@akyhne]

Use Ffmetrics to compare.

[@UmitSeyhan75]

Did you mean: How to Reduce Video File Size Without Losing *TOO MUCH Image Quality

[@akyhne]

Using Handbrake will always lead to quality loss. And the higher compression rate of the source, the higher the loss. You can use FFMetrics to evaluate how much is lost, instead of relying on your eyes. And don't use H.264. Any player today (TV, phone, computer etc.) can use H.265, which halves the file size for the same quality. And if it's for storage, use AV1 or H.266. They will half the size from H.265, but most players can't play them. But then again, if the goal is storage, I wouldn't touch the original at all. Just buy bigger storage (external HDD or similar).

[@Thalamus4]

Test the least powerful device, before you massively convert your videos. R-PI3 pr. example will start to struggle with H.265 when H264 is less compressed and easier to decode.

[@NonLegitNation2]

why would you use FFMetrics instead of your eyes? If the video looks good compared to the source video then what's the problem? Also H265 does not half the size of H264. I've been using Topaz Video AI and Handbrake for years so I know. You are correct that the higher the compression of the source video the lower quality the output will be. Also regarding AV1, when you have TBs worth of videos like I do AV1 10-bit SVT looks totally fine compared to H264 and it's a tiny fraction of the size of an H264 file. As I mentioned in my comment above today i used handbrake on a H264 video that was 6mins 4k 60fps and was 11GB in size. Using AV1 10-bit SVT with a video quality of 15 the two videos look identical when i play them next to each other. But also as i mentioned you need a really powerful CPU if you don't want it to take all day.

[@akyhne]

@@NonLegitNation2 You cannot properly evaluate a video, by looking at it. What screen are you using? A monitor? a 85" TV? Are you even using a calibrated screen? There will be difference in perception, depending on your screen. So, watching and validating a 4K video on a mobile phone, will tell you nothing. FFMetrics is very quick to use. And once you have used it a few times, you know what target bitrates you can live with. Sure, of course, you will see a huge decrease in file size, if your original file is 11GB for a 6 minute video. That's a bitrate around 2½ the bitrate of a 4K HDR 2½ hour Blu-Ray movie. That's a bitrate, only Hollywood works with (and even much higher than that).

[@bleakyfinder2692]

ist

[@buckrogers4720]

.265 is way better than .264 with much better compression

[@Britec09]

correct

[@chippyyyy]

goin by that might as well go with av1 since its the same quality as h.265 at half the bitrate which means drastically lower file sizes at pretty much native quality

[@corel965]

aXXo, YIFY, 3Li, gangs 😅