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Perhaps useful for vidders
Jan. 16th, 2019 10:36 amI've noticed a trend lately with downloadable vids getting huge, like around 200-250 Mb.
It might be that this is completely intentional and people are putting them out in the highest possible quality, and no one is really that concerned about bandwidth/disk space anymore. I'm also not sure if anyone but me still downloads vids anyway. But it might also be, for some people, that it's just what your vidding program does and you can't get it smaller without a major loss of quality, or you don't have the option to make it smaller at all. I have that problem with mine and I have a couple of simple workarounds for making smaller vids without too much loss of quality, in case you wanted to offer people a less enormous download.
#1 - Upload it to Youtube, then download it from Youtube, by prefixing "ss" to the "youtube" part of the vid URL. This will take you to a page where you have the option of downloading it. (Or using whatever other means you normally use to gank stuff from Youtube, if you do that.) The size and quality you get is a bit hit or miss, but usually you'll end up with a decent-quality file that is much smaller than the original, and it's easy and free. You used to be able to do this even better with Vimeo (and from within the Vimeo site itself, with the option of choosing your vid size), until they did away with downloads on the free version, but I'm pretty sure the paid version can still do it if you happen to have that already.
#2 - On a Mac, you can export it from Quicktime. I'm not 100% sure this feature is free, because over the years I've paid for Quicktime Pro on several different computers and I honestly can't recall if this computer is one of them or if they've added a bunch of the Quicktime Pro features to the standard Quicktime installation. However, if you have the option, what you want is Export under the file menu. I usually export to iTunes, in which case it shows up in the iTunes music folder, in a folder called Home Movies, and you can then drag it anywhere. With my older copy of Final Cut, exporting a full-size MOV from Final Cut and then using this to make it into an MP4 often got me a nicer-quality file for its size than Final Cut's native export options.
And of course, if it's intentional, then no need to worry about it. I do kinda want to put out there that offering a smaller sized download option is something that some of us still appreciate, if you can. (This is not aimed at anyone specific, and it's not even something I've run into that recently; it's brought to you by me smallening a downloadable version of a vid that had exported from Final Cut as a 240 Mb MP4, because no.)
It might be that this is completely intentional and people are putting them out in the highest possible quality, and no one is really that concerned about bandwidth/disk space anymore. I'm also not sure if anyone but me still downloads vids anyway. But it might also be, for some people, that it's just what your vidding program does and you can't get it smaller without a major loss of quality, or you don't have the option to make it smaller at all. I have that problem with mine and I have a couple of simple workarounds for making smaller vids without too much loss of quality, in case you wanted to offer people a less enormous download.
#1 - Upload it to Youtube, then download it from Youtube, by prefixing "ss" to the "youtube" part of the vid URL. This will take you to a page where you have the option of downloading it. (Or using whatever other means you normally use to gank stuff from Youtube, if you do that.) The size and quality you get is a bit hit or miss, but usually you'll end up with a decent-quality file that is much smaller than the original, and it's easy and free. You used to be able to do this even better with Vimeo (and from within the Vimeo site itself, with the option of choosing your vid size), until they did away with downloads on the free version, but I'm pretty sure the paid version can still do it if you happen to have that already.
#2 - On a Mac, you can export it from Quicktime. I'm not 100% sure this feature is free, because over the years I've paid for Quicktime Pro on several different computers and I honestly can't recall if this computer is one of them or if they've added a bunch of the Quicktime Pro features to the standard Quicktime installation. However, if you have the option, what you want is Export under the file menu. I usually export to iTunes, in which case it shows up in the iTunes music folder, in a folder called Home Movies, and you can then drag it anywhere. With my older copy of Final Cut, exporting a full-size MOV from Final Cut and then using this to make it into an MP4 often got me a nicer-quality file for its size than Final Cut's native export options.
And of course, if it's intentional, then no need to worry about it. I do kinda want to put out there that offering a smaller sized download option is something that some of us still appreciate, if you can. (This is not aimed at anyone specific, and it's not even something I've run into that recently; it's brought to you by me smallening a downloadable version of a vid that had exported from Final Cut as a 240 Mb MP4, because no.)
