Top 3 Ways to Reduce MP4 File Size Without Losing Quality

When it comes to video formats, nothing can beat the popularity of MP4. The compressed nature, good quality, and compatibility with almost all types of devices and players make it one of the most widely used formats. There are some occassions that you need to compress the size of your MP4 file and below listed are the top ones.

1. YouTube is the most popular video sharing site that has a huge collection of MP4 videos. If you wish to upload a file over YouTube too, you need to reduce size of videos as large size files generally encounter errors while uploading. Moreover, small size files can be quickly uploaded and shared on social media platforms.
2. A large size of MP4 file is not only difficult to send through email but also takes a lot of time. Thus, reducing the size of the MP4 file will make the process faster as well as convenient.
3. If you own a smartphone with small screen and wish to play your favorite MP4 videos, you need to find a video resolution reducer to compress the file so that it fits perfectly over your phone screen. A large MP4 file will not be displayed properly over the phone and will hamper the experience of enjoying a high-resolution video.

Part 1: 3 Ways on How to Compress MP4 Files

Now when we know the positives associated with MP4 file compression, the next question arises about the ways to get the job done. If you have If you have finally decided to reduce MP4 file size for space saving, emailing, playing, uploading, or any other reasons, below are top 3 ways to do so.

Solution 1: Reducing MP4 File Size By Conversion

ne of the simplest and most straightforward ways to reduce MP4 files is by converting it to a format that is smaller in size. Just like MKV, MP4 packs multiple types of files into one file and it may contain subtitles files, audio tracks and multiple video tracks all contained within one file. Large MP4 files occupy large space on your hard disc and in order to avoid the same, you can convert it to smaller sized formats like WMV, FLV, and others. Given below is the list of formats that you can consider for compressing MP4 files. Associated pros and cons are also listed so that you can make a better choice considering your requirements.

Thus considering the above table of formats with its pros and cons, it can be concluded that WMV and FLV are smaller sized formats that can be considered for compressing MP4 files. You can make use of professional software like Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate or a free converter to convert MP4 to WMV, FLV, or other formats.

Solution 2: Change the Video Bitrate/Frame Rate/Resolution for Compressing MP4 Files

Different video parameters like frame rate, resolution, etc. also influence video size. So another way to reduce MP4 file size is to change and edit the parameter settings.

Changing Bit Rate: The size of the video file can be decreased by lowering its bitrate. Bit rate size is directly proportional to file size and thus reducing one will reduce the other as well. But here it needs to be understood that too much lowering of the bit rate will reduce the quality as well. Thus reducing bit rate by 20-30% of the original size is a good choice.

Changing the resolution of the file: The resolution of any file determines its size as well as quality. A high-resolution file will have good quality and a larger file size. Thus, if you are aiming to reduce file size, reducing the resolution with a video resolution reducer will do the trick. If you have HD videos with a high resolution of 1920 * 1080P, you can reduce it to 1280 X 720P, 640 X 480, 640 X 360 and other resolutions so as to reduce MP4 size. The most commonly and recommended resolution is 640 X 480 as it is compatible with the majority of the mobile devices ( Android, iPhone, and iPad) and various popular sites including Facebook, Vimeo, and YouTube.

Changing frame rate: Another aspect which can be considered while reducing MP4 file size is reduce the frame rate of the file. The frame rate is directly related to file size and thus reducing one will directly affect the other. The smaller the frame rate of the video is, the smaller its file size will be.

If you're considering changing frame rate, bit rate and resolution for compressing MP4 files, below listed are suggested settings of MP4 file for Vimeo and YouTube. The file can be kept at 23.97 fps in order to reduce the size of the file before compressing it.

Solution 3: Cut/Crop Unnecessary Video Segment for reducing video file size of MP4

Another common solution to compress the size of MP4 file is by trimming and reducing its unwanted parts. If you have huge MP4 clips, you can do some editing by reducing unnecessary parts that will automatically reduce the size of the file. There are plenty of editing tools as well as professional converter software available that will help you to do the task of editing and trimming. A big file can also be cut down into multiple segments for reducing its size.

Part 2: 4 Free Video Size Reducer to Reduce MP4 files (Online, Windows and Mac Tools)

If you are considering free video size reducer software for compressing your MP4 and other file, listed below are the best tools that work online, on Windows and Mac platforms.

1. Clipchamp (Online)

Clipchamp is one of the most commonly used video compressor tools available online that is simple and quick to work with. While using this online MP4 compressor, you simply need to upload the desired file, select the output format with parameters and then compress. The program is free to use, needs no installation and supports MP4, ASF, FLV, WMV, GIF and WebM format.

2. Handbrake (Windows and Mac)

HandBrake is decent movie file size reducer for Mac users that allows reducing MP4 files and other files. The program allows adjusting parameters like frame rate, bit rate, resolution, and others so that it can reduce movie size easily.

3. VLC Media Player (Windows and Mac)

VLC Media Player is such an effective player that not only plays audio and video but enables you to resize video, cut video and convert video.

4. Windows Movie Maker

For Windows users, Windows Movie maker is a good MP4 compressor to reduce video size. The software allows to shrink a MP4 video by selecting the size of the finished video. The program features decent interface and supports other formats like WMV, MPEG, H264, MP3, AVI, MOV, and WMA formats.

5. iMovie

iMovie from Apple is another decent tool to reduce video file size mac, which can be used in order to reduce different file formats including MP4, AVI, MOV, and MKV. The selected file can be compressed by changing the frame rate, bit rate, output format, and resolution.

Part 3: Ultimate Solution to Reduce MP4 Files with Less Quality Loss

No matter which methods and tools mentioned above you would like to use, the highly-recommended tool is EaseFab Video Converter (available for both Windows and Mac users). It can easily reduce the size of MP4 by reducing resolution, video and audio bit rate or converter MP4 to other formats as you like.

Guide on Reduce the Size of MP4 Video with EaseFab Video Converter

Step 1. Import Original MP4 File

Download the launch the MP4 reducer and then click Add Video button to browse and import the MP4 file you want to reduce to the program. You can also directly drag the MP4 file into the program.

Step 2. Start to compress video size in MP4

Click Profile (located below where your files are displayed) and select the MP4 format you want from the drop-down list. And then click the Settings button to enter the Settings window. In the window, you can directly select the Low Quality option from the drop-down list of Bitrate and let the program resize the size of MP4 immediately (or you can manually change the settings like resolution, bit rate, frame rate, encoder by yourself).

Note: After reducing the size of MP4, the quality of the video will decrease. So you should strike a balance between the size and quality. And the key influence factors of minimizing video size is the bitrate and the resolution.

Step 3. Save the newly-reduced MP4 file

When you're satisfied with the outcome, choose a suitable output format if you want to convert the MP4 file to other format. Then hit Convert button to activate the file conversion.

In fact, as a full-feature converter, EaseFab Video Converter also supports other 150+ popular video and audio formats including TIVO, AVI, MP4, MPG, MPEG, NUT, H.264, MP3, M4A, AC3, AAC, WMA, WAV, OGG, APE, MKA and more. Now download it and explore more features of this powerful video converter!