Video shrinking

2024

Use Handbrake on Windows, Mac, Linux

Select Preset -> General -> Fast or Very Fast in 1080 or 720

Linux

Dank an Johannes!

mencoder -ovc help # zeigt verfügbare Codecs
# lavc ist angeblich der beste. Ab und zu wird auch x264 empfohlen.
mencoder -vf -o output.avi -oac copy -ovc lavc input.avi
# Drehung mit Option rotate=1 / rotate=2

Windows as of 2018

Today I prefer using Handbrake for video shrinking / compression as it work in Windows, Linux and Mac.

For movies captured by my digital camera or smartphone
I use preset "Matroska -> H.265 MKV 720p30" as template and modify
Picture -> Height 720 for downscaling to 720pt
Video -> Quality 25 for most videos
Audio -> 64bit Mono (for camera or telephone videos)
(this modifications can be saved as "User Preset" which can be set to default preset)

Trimming some seconds off the ends is achieved in section "Source" by switching from "Chapters" to "Seconds".

Rotate On Filters tab choose Rotate

Windows as of 2010

I like the free windows tool Format Factory!

My Settings

For compressing the videos taken by my digicam (resolution=640x480px) I usually use the following settings:
Video

container: mkv (or mp4)
codec: H264
bitrate: between 512 and 1024 kbit/s (512kbit/s for 640x480px seems to be enough)
(note: 600MB/hour equals 1365kbit/s)
2 Pass encoding: True (for better quality, but much longer computing time)

Audio

only one channel (=Mono) @ 64kbit/s (as the tiny mic. in the digicam is not able to record real stereo)
sometimes I even disable the audio channel if there is nothing but noise on it.

Output Folder -> "Output to source file folder"

Rotating the video by 90°

use the following settings:

Rotate = Left or Right
(AspectRatio=4:3) was needed in earlier versions, now use Automatic

Beispiele

16:9, FullHD: 1920x1080 (oder auch 1280x720) schrumpfen auf 800x450?

Video Size: 800x450
Aspect Ratio: 16:9

My Format Factory Profiles

Here are my custom profiles, that can be found at

c:\Users\...\Documents\FormatFactory\VideoCustom\

h264, 512kbit, mono

Type=MP4

VideoCodec=AVC(H264)
VideoBitrate=512000
Width=0
Height=0
FPS=0.000
AspectRatio=0.000 

AudioCodec=AAC
AudioBitrate=64000
SampleRate=0
Channel=1
Volume=0

TowPassEncode=1

h264, 512kbit, mono, rotate (one has to set the aspect ratio by hand!)

Type=MP4

VideoCodec=AVC(H264)
VideoBitrate=512000
Width=0
Height=0
FPS=0.000
AspectRatio=1.333 

AudioCodec=AAC
AudioBitrate=64000
SampleRate=0
Channel=1
Volume=0

TowPassEncode=1

mute instead of mono:

AudioCodec=AAC
AudioBitrate=0
SampleRate=0
Channel=0
Volume=0

(It turned out, that FF version 2.50 does ignore the Channel=0 setting, so you habe to disable audio in the dialog)