File compression on PC

Garry Edwards

Garry Edwards

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I wonder whether anyone can help, here's the problem.

I need to compress some videos, which vary in size up to 4.6Gb, down to 2Gb or less (so that they can be sent via Yousendit, which has a file/folder size of 2Gb.

I don't want to compromise the quality of the videos by saving them in a lower quality format.

This is all new to me and I can't make sense of the WINWAR 'help', so my questions are these.

1. Can it be done?
2. If it can be done, will it affect the quality?
3. If it can be done, will it cause problems for the people I'm sending them too?
4. If it can be done, how do I do it please?
5. If it can't be done, does anyone know of a realistically-priced alternative to Yousendit that allows file sizes up to 4.6Gb?

Thanks
 
depends, if the videos are already in a compressed file type then winrar wont be able to compress them any more. however you can split the file using winrar and send it in chunks.

alternatively re-encode using something like handbrake or ripbot.
 
Most file compression programs have the option to split up the target file into smaller sizes and re-assemble at the other end. I would just do that and specify 1.99Gb as the maximum size.


I've used WINRAR in the past to compress 8Gb files to fit on 2 x DVDs from the PC
 
Do you have a web host for your site?

If you can FTP a file to the site and download it at the other end that that could be an alternative.
 
If they are in any compressed format (e.g. MPEG2, H.264, xvid...) then you won't compress them any more with zip, gzip, winrar etc...

The only alternatives you have are:

  • Reencode at a lower resolution and/or bitrate with the same codec
  • Reencode with a more efficient codec
  • Use winrar to zip them but have it create multiple files that are smaller than the largest filesize you can upload (in the winrar wizard it asks you to if you want to split into several parts and how big each part should be)
  • Use an FTP/web site and download from that
  • Drop it onto a DVD-R (4.6GBytes is the size of a DVD!)

4.6GBytes is an awfully big video file. I have many 720p rips of whole films that are less than 4.6GBytes. Are you SURE you need to upload it in that quality?
 
cowasaki said:
Most file compression programs have the option to split up the target file into smaller sizes and re-assemble at the other end. I would just do that and specify 1.99Gb as the maximum size.


I've used WINRAR in the past to compress 8Gb files to fit on 2 x DVDs from the PC
Click to expand...

This seems to me to be the most user-friendly option for my customers - presumably I just send the file in bits and suggest that they put the bits into the same folder and then unzip it?
 
Garry Edwards said:
This seems to me to be the most user-friendly option for my customers - presumably I just send the file in bits and suggest that they put the bits into the same folder and then unzip it?
Click to expand...

Yes they download each file then place them all in the same folder then they double click on the first file and it does all of them back into the original.
 
Thanks
 
I have to ask, what are you sending at 4.6GBytes per file? You're in feature film territory there...
 
So you're producing master DVDs and want to send them? Surely a DVD-R is a better proposition.

4.6GBytes = 1 hr DVD quality standard def material in MPEG2 or 1 hr 720p encoded in H.264 material. How long are the clips?
 
arad85 said:
So you're producing master DVDs and want to send them? Surely a DVD-R is a better proposition.

4.6GBytes = 1 hr DVD quality standard def material in MPEG2 or 1 hr 720p encoded in H.264 material. How long are the clips?
Click to expand...
They vary, but the shortest is over an hour, some are more than 2 hours. 3 things have happened, basically.
1. Sales have gradually gone down, this is inevitable with the plethora of free stuff on the internet, even though most of the free stuff isn't worth watching it has of course affected sales. With lower sales, it should be possible to keep up with demand, even though upload times are fairly long.
2. My dvd duplicator has started playing up, and I expect it will stop working soon. I can buy another, but if I can avoid it by sending them via Yousend it then it will suit me better.
3. Increasingly, customers are asking for them as downloads, and as postage charges are now very high and many of the customers are abroad, it makes sense all round.
 
You can make DVD copies with the £20 DVD-R drive in the PC you know ;)

If you want downloadable, I'd suggest looking at whether what you are doing is the best way of providing it. Effectively dumping a DVD on some form of download site probably isn't the most effective of providing video for your customers.
 
Garry
Have you considered Dropbox. Easy to setup share and use.
 
Hi Phil,

I do have dropbox, but believe it requires the recipient to have it too - in my situation I'm sending videos to customers, there is an element of repeat business but they are partly one-offs.
 
I'd consider a service which doesn't have the limitation instead of yousendit. Can you do downloads directly via your ecommerce s/w? Some have it built in. This would of course depend on your hosting package as to whether it was effective.

4GB is one hour HD quality. I think having high quality is a good selling point.

Is there a limit on something like rapidshare and can it be secured properly?
 
srichards said:
4GB is one hour HD quality. I think having high quality is a good selling point.
Click to expand...
It depends which codec/bitrate you use. I have a PC set up here to record off air broadcasts. When they come in, I then recode them, copying the Dolby audio but recompressing the video with x264. The Christmas special Downton Abbey started out at 10+GBytes and is now 3GBytes after recoding - that's a 2 hour program with 2 channel Dolby Digital. I do NOT resize (BBC/ITV tend to broadcast 1440x1080) to 1280x720 (i.e. 720p) as I think too much quality is lost in the downsize (plus it slows the reencode). There is only a slight loss of quality compressing down to this level when comparing back to back with broadcast (there are other advantages too - I can de-interlace in software rather than worrying about how this will display on computers.

The thing for me would be the wait. I'm on a 4MBit link here and I'd far rather download a 1G file than a 4G file purely for the amount of time it would take to download.

Garry: if you want to upload a short (~1min) clip somewhere, I'll recode it here and see if you think there is much quality loss. I can pretty much recode anything to anything else if you need.

As Neil says, I'd be uploading to my own hosting to send it. It will look far more professional.
 
Could you stream the videos directly from your site in a secure area that they get access to once payment has been made? It's easy and cheap enough to get unlimited bandwidth from hosting providers now and all you have to do is supply a link and password to your customer. Granted they could pass the details on but then they could pass on copies of the digital file also. You could always check your web stats to see if there's unauthorised access.

I don't think using smaller dimensions will be a problem so smaller filesizes and better compression can be achieved; if it's good enough for mainstream then it should be ok for you. If you design the page around the video rather than the video sitting on a blank page all alone then it won't look so small either.
 
Some very good and helpful points, thanks.

Yousendit isn't actually free, or at least not for me, I pay a monthly subscription because I use it a lot. It's taking literally 12 hours to send 1 video at the moment so I don't think it's viable from my end, and probably not ideal for my customers either.

Hosting it on my website and sending download links to customers is probably the best answer. The problem is that I'm no longer dealing with the person who designed and is hosting the website for me, I'll contact him and see if he can help.
 
Garry Edwards said:
Hi Phil,

I do have dropbox, but believe it requires the recipient to have it too - in my situation I'm sending videos to customers, there is an element of repeat business but they are partly one-offs.
Click to expand...

You can give them access to your dropbox, a subfolder at a time, just using their email address - it's easy I've done it for very un-techy people.
 
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