With VLC Media Player, you can play, convert, and edit videos of different types, download YouTube videos, record screens, and more. This post from MiniTool will tell you 3 ways to compress video with VLC and share with you some VLC alternatives.
VLC is a free and open-source media player software and streaming media server available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and iPadOS. It has multiple features for your digital video content. For instance, VLC can play and convert various video files.
Now, some people are wondering how to compress video with VLC. In this post, we’ll show you how to reduce video size using VLC.
Method 1. Convert Video to a Smaller Video Format
Changing video format is one of the main features of VLC. It can import almost all types of video files and convert them to another format like MP4, WebM, and more.
As for output formats, VLC supports H.264 /H.265 MP4, WebM, AVI, FLV, MKV, WMV, and more. You can choose from these profiles or create a new profile.
Generally speaking, MP4 using the h.265 codec produces approximately half the file size of MP4 files using the H.264 codec. AVI and MOV are usually larger than MP4 videos. WebM, MKV, and WMV are frequently smaller than MP4 videos.
Here’s how to compress a video with VLC.
Step 1. Run VLC Media Player on your PC.
Step 2. Click the Media > Convert/Save…/+Add to upload your video, and click the Convert/Save.
Step 3. Expand the Profile drop-down list and choose a preset.
If HEVC is compatible with your device, you can choose Video - H.265 + MP3 (MP4). If you want to compress this video for YouTube, you can select Video for YouTube HD or Video for YouTube SD.
Step 4. Click the Browse to choose the output folder and rename this file.
Step 5. Click the Start button to enable the conversion.
After conversion, you can check out the file size of the converted file by right-clicking a video and choosing Properties. If you’re not satisfied with the result, you can repeat these steps and convert your video to another format.
Method 2. Change Video Encoding Parameters
You can change the video codec, bitrate, frame rate, and quality to make VLC compress videos.
Any video codec is designed to shrink the file size. Just choose the desired one. Video bitrate is a key factor that affects video file size. The higher bitrate produces a larger file size. The higher frame rate means more still images of each second of the video, and more images produce a big file size.
To compress video, you should decrease the bitrate, frame rate, and quality of your video.
Here’s the how.
Step 1. Open VLC, Click the Media > Convert/Save…/+Add to upload your video, and click the Convert/Save.
Step 2. Choose a format from the Profile drop-down list, and click the Edit selected profile icon.
Step 3. Go to the Video codec tab and choose Encoding parameters. And edit the codec, bitrate, quality, frame rate, and click Save.
Step 4. Click the Browse to choose the output folder and rename this file. Click the Start button to start conversion.
Method 3. Trim/Cut Unnecessary Parts of Video
The second method way to reduce video size using VLC is to cut unnecessary parts of your video. VLC has many editing tools and allows you to cut, crop, rotate videos, edit video color, etc.
Here’s how to cut videos in VLC.
Step 1. Open VLC and click Media and Open File to add your video. Pause the video playback.
Step 2. Go to View > Advanced Controls and you will see serval advanced control options above your normal player control buttons.
Step 3. Drag the video to the start point from where you want to trim, play the video and click the Record button shown in the below screenshot.
Step 4. When reaching the ending point, click the Record button again.
Step 5. Go to This PC and Videos and you’ll find the trimmed recordings.
VLC Alternatives to Play/Edit/Convert/Download/Record Videos
This part offers 2 alternatives to VLC Media Player to play, edit, and convert videos, download YouTube videos, and record screens.
VLC Alternative to Play/Edit/Convert Videos: MiniTool MovieMaker
MiniTool MovieMakerClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
MiniTool MovieMaker supports many popular video formats for input, and you can play and edit these files. It allows you to trim, split, rotate, flip videos, add filters, transitions, stickers, edit video color, and more.
After editing, MiniTool MovieMaker can export these videos in different formats. Thus, it also functions as a video converter.
VLC Alternative to Convert/Download/Record Videos: MiniTool Video Converter
MiniTool Video ConverterClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
MiniTool Video Converter is a free and professional video converter. It works with a variety of video file types for both input and output, and it can convert audio. This program can convert 4K to 1080p, 720p, 480p, etc. You can easily change the resolution to compress a video.
MiniTool Video Converter also enables you to download YouTube videos and record screens for free and without watermarks.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Cora works as an editor at MiniTool for many years, writing articles about video editing, video conversion, and screen recording. She also writes articles about Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, and Twitter. During her spare time, Cora loves reading, traveling, and watching movies.