Reducing MPEG4 file size?

[LeadFarmer]

What’s the best way of compressing MPEG4 video files whilst preserving picture quality? I’m using a MacBook.

I’ve got some 5gb MPEG4 video files that I wanted to move to my external hard drive which is MSDOS (Fas32) format (to play on MacBook, PC, PS3 etc) but I believe that has a file size limit of 4.5gb?

Is handbrake recommended for this work.

Edited by LeadFarmer on Tuesday 22 December 22:15

[Penelope Stopit]

MP4 is lossy, it's compressed

Handbrake is a great tool and will give you a reduced size video, the problem may arise that the lossy MP4 you have becomes too lossy once run through handbrake or any other video compression software

Thought FAT32 was no good for storage due to the problem you are now facing

Have you considered a different format or storage device?

[Road2Ruin]

MP4 is not lossy at all. MP4 is the container that a video file is put in to. It may be compressed, but doesn't have to be. That said, if you want to keep a good picture, depending on the resolution and length of the original video, it's going to be good enough if reduced. If you can, this will depend on the thing you are playing it on, you want to encode the video in h.265 and put it in an MP4. This produces a smaller file at similar quality to an older h.264 encoded video. However, a lot of players can't play h.265. Also they take longer to encode. You may save quite a bit o size though. If you need to stick with h.264 its just a case of reducing the bit rate. Some encoders you can specify the maximum file size and it will do it all for you. Not sure about handbrake on that one, but I m sure someone will be along in a mo to advise.

[LeadFarmer]

Thanks, I've converted one of the files using Handbrake and its reduced it from over 5gb to 800mb,
Naughty I know, but I've got a free trial of Disney+ and am copying The Mandalorian series from my Sky Q box onto an external hard drive, so that we can rewatch it after the trial expires.

MSDOS format allows me to play the files on my MacBook and Playstation etc.

Edited by LeadFarmer on Wednesday 23 December 12:58

[camel_landy]

Road2Ruin said:

MP4 is not lossy at all. MP4 is the container that a video file is put in to. It may be compressed, but doesn't have to be.

IIRC - MP4, with compression, can be lossy... But it depends on how it's decoded. Decode with the same algorithm and it'll be lossless.

...but don't quote me on that as it has been many years since I've had to go into details on compression methods.

M

[Penelope Stopit]

Road2Ruin said:

MP4 is not lossy at all

Take a video file of any format and compress it to a smaller MP4 format

Now attempt to extract the data from the above created smaller MP4 file and convert it back to its original size and quality

Impossible isn't it

MP4 compression is lossy

[Road2Ruin]

Penelope Stopit said:

Road2Ruin said:

MP4 is not lossy at all

Take a video file of any format and compress it to a smaller MP4 format

Now attempt to extract the data from the above created smaller MP4 file and convert it back to its original size and quality

Impossible isn't it

MP4 compression is lossy

No. You are confusing two different things. MP4 is a container, the thing that holds the video file. You can put almost any video file into an MP4, lossy or lossless. Most people use an h.264 or h.265 codec for the video file, which are lossy compression codecs, so generally the thing inside and MP4 is lossy, but the container ie MP4 had no bearing on this. However, if you did use a lossy compression codec you can't restore it to the original quality.

[The_Jackal]

Just convert to an H.264 format and be done with it.
Any software will have a preset for it.
You have no need to bother with the pedantic intricacies surrounding codecs.

[LeadFarmer]

Handbrake is doing it ok, but is taking about 1 hour to convert a 30 min video.

[The_Jackal]

Alas, this is something that throwing money at will help. Power equals speed when it comes to encoding.