Why Reduce File Size of a Video?
The result of uploading a video directly from your device to your website particularly if it is a large video is that the large video will slow down your website, upset visitors to your site and detrimentally affect your SEO. If your site happens to have a lot of traffic and the visitors play lots of videos on your site you might end up hitting some band usage limit in your hosting account. When you upload a video from your device to YouTube and subsequently embed it on your site, the video will play on YouTube servers and not on your hosting.
Over the years I have uploading videos to my website. I ended up having many videos (including videos of all the training I do) and the problem was that most of the videos had not been compressed.
The larger the files, the more data has to be downloaded. So, it takes longer for your site to appear on-screen. Compressing these files makes them smaller and cuts down the time needed to load them, often resulting in a significant boost to website speed.
HandBrake
HandBrake is a FREE program for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs.
Reasons you’ll love HandBrake:
- Convert video from nearly any format
- Free and Open Source
- Multi-Platform (Windows, Mac and Linux)
Tests I Ran
Test 1 – Comparing File Size – MP4 Video Uploaded Directly to My Website Xs Uploading Video to My YouTube Channel
| File Type | File Size (MB) | Length (Min) | Audio Format | Dimensions | Uploaded Date | YouTube (MB) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MP4 | 35 MB | 8:25 | mp4 | 1600 x 860 | Sept 1, 2021 | 22.4 MB |
| MP4 | 39 MB | 7:44 | mp4 | 1600 x 860 | Aug 31, 2021 | 27 MB |
| MP4 | 653 MB | 2:20:25 | mp4 | 1600 x 900 | Aug 10, 2021 | 399 MB |
| MP4 | 443 MB | 1:49:57 | mp4 | 1600 x 900 | Aug 9, 2021 | 283 MB |
| MP4 | 447 MB | 2:08:43 | mp4 | 1600 x 860 | July 28, 2021 | 286 MB |
| MP4 | 683 MB | 2:32:25 | mp4 | 1600 x 900 | May 14, 2021 | 403 MB |
Test 2 – Reducing File Size Using HandBrake
| File Type (Original) | File Size (MB) | Length (Min) | Uploaded Date | HandBrake (m4v) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MP4 | 653 MB | 2:20:25 | Dec 27, 2021 | 403 MB |
| MP4 | 653 MB | 2:20:25 | Dec 27, 2021 | 403 MB (Optimized) |
Test 3 – File Size of Video Compressed on HandBrake Uploaded to YouTube
| File Type | File Size (MB) | Length (Min) | Uploaded | HandBrake (m4v) | YouTube (MB) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MP4 | 653 MB | 2:20:25 | Aug 10, 2021 | 403 MB | 399 MB |
How to Check a Video File Size on YouTube
Login to your YouTube account > Channel Content > click the 3 dots of the relevant video > click ‘Download’
How to Upload (Embed) a YouTube Video
Conclusion
- you can reduce your video file size with HandBrake tool or with YouTube
- When comparing a video file size between not using any compression and compressing using YouTube or a tool such as HandBrake, there isn’t much of a difference in file size on short duration videos but there is a huge difference in file size on longer duration videos
- If you are going to display your video on both your website as well as YouTube then there is no need to use HandBrake. HandBrake is very useful if you do need to display video on your website (and not using YouTube)
- The quality of an uploaded video from your device to your WordPress website is slightly higher when compared to the quality of the same video uploaded to your website through YouTube embedding. The problem when uploading a video directly from your device to your website particularly if it is a large video is that the large video will slow down your website, upset visitors to your site and detrimentally affect your SEO. If your site happens to have a lot of traffic and the visitors play lots of videos on your site you might end up hitting some band usage limit in your hosting account
- When you upload a video from your device to YouTube and subsequently embed it on your site, the video will play on YouTube servers and not on your hosting.
What About You?
Do you compress your videos? Which tool do you Use? Leave your comments down below.
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