您是否有想要通过互联网发送给某人的视频，但它太大而无法通过电子邮件、聊天应用程序或其他类似服务发送？您是否必须记录您的作业并将其上传(homework and upload)到电子学习平台，以便您的老师可以给您评分？您可能会偶然发现一个令人讨厌的尺寸限制(size limitation)，它不允许您这样做，仅仅是因为您的全高清视频(Full HD video)太大。无论(Regardless)您出于何种原因，如果您想了解如何缩小视频的大小，请阅读本指南。我们展示了几种在任何 Windows PC 上缩小视频文件的不同方法：
1. 如何使用Windows 10内置的视频编辑器应用程序使视频更小(Video Editor app)
Windows 10 捆绑了一款名为Video Editor的便捷视频编辑应用程序。按照本指南中的说明打开它并加载要缩小的视频：您可以使用Windows 10的(Windows 10)视频编辑器(Video Editor)执行的 12 件事。如果您没有时间阅读整个教程，那么基础知识如下：
单击或点击“开始”菜单中的“(Start Menu)视频编辑器”(Video Editor)快捷方式，或使用任务栏中的搜索来查找它。
按下“新建视频项目”("New video project")按钮。
为您要创建的新视频选择一个名称，然后按OK。
(Drag)将要缩小的视频拖放到视频编辑器(Video Editor)窗口中。或者，您也可以按添加(Add)按钮并选择视频。
在视频编辑器(Video Editor)窗口中，将视频从项目库(Project library)中拖放到故事板上。
现在是“使视频更小”过程的重要部分：单击或点击(click or tap)视频编辑器(Video Editor)窗口右上角的“完成视频”按钮。("Finish video")
视频编辑器(Video Editor)会打开一个对话框，询问您“视频质量”。("Video quality.") 单击(Click)或点击预选选项，该选项应为“高 1080p（推荐）("High 1080p (recommended))”。
要使视频更小，请选择Medium 720p或Low 540p。中720p(Medium 720p)使视频更小，同时在此过程中不会损失太多质量。
但是，如果您需要尽可能小的视频文件大小(video file size)，请选择低 540p(Low 540p)选项。
做出选择后，按“导出(Export)”按钮并选择要将较小视频保存在 Windows 10 PC 上的位置。
根据原始视频的长度和初始质量，转换后的视频文件(video file)可以小得多。例如，当我们使用Video Editor使用Low 540p设置缩小 65MB 视频时，我们得到的转换后的视频文件(video file)只有 29MB。
2. 如何使用VLC使视频更小(VLC)
VLC是世界上最受欢迎的媒体播放器之一，这要归功于它能够播放几乎所有的视频和音频文件(video and audio files)。但是，它不仅可以播放媒体文件，而且您可能不知道的一件事是VLC还可以压缩视频以使其更小。如果您的 Windows 10 PC 上还没有它，您可以从官方VideoLan VLC 媒体播放器(VideoLan VLC media player)网站获取它。
在 PC 上安装VLC后，启动它，打开其媒体(Media)菜单，然后单击或点击"Convert / Save."或者，您也可以同时按下Ctrl + R键。
这将显示一个名为“打开媒体”的窗口。("Open Media.")在默认选择的“文件(File)”选项卡中，按右侧的“添加”按钮。(Add)
浏览(Browse)您的 Windows 10 PC 以查找并选择要缩小的视频。完成后，单击或点击(click or tap)Open。
这会将视频添加到将由VLC转换的文件列表中。单击或点击窗口右下角的"Convert / Save"
单击或点击配置文件(Profile)并选择预定义的视频配置文件之一。根据我们的经验，第一个 -Video - H.264 + MP3 (MP4) - 是最佳选择之一，因为几乎所有媒体播放器和在线视频共享网站都支持它。它还提供了最好的压缩率之一，而不会对视频和音频质量造成太大影响。
您可以保持此配置文件设置不变，您仍然可以获得良好的结果，使视频更小。但是，如果您想确保它足够小以满足您的需求，您可以进一步调整配置文件的设置。为此，请单击或点击(click or tap)旁边的小扳手按钮，VLC可让您访问所有可用设置。
确保视频小于原始视频的最佳方法之一是降低其分辨率。您可以通过配置文件的设置，在Video codec > Resolution选项卡中执行此操作。在那里，要么选择缩小(Scale)视频，要么手动输入一个新的更小的分辨率，就像我们在下面的屏幕截图中所做的那样（我们将视频宽度(video width)设置为 720 像素，因为原始分辨率为 1080p）。根据需要更改设置后，单击或点击保存(Save)。
返回“转换(Convert)”窗口，单击或点击“目标文件”("Destination file")字段右侧的浏览。(Browse)
浏览(Navigate)您的 Windows 10 PC 以选择新转换的视频的位置，并为其选择一个名称。
返回“转换(Convert)”窗口，单击或点击“开始(Start)”按钮。
等待VLC转换并保存新的视频文件(video file)。您可以实时监控进度，因为它显示在VLC窗口的底部。
完成后，您可以找到您选择保存的新视频。使用我们之前提到的设置，我们设法将 65MB 大小的视频转换为仅 16MB 的较小视频文件(video file)，而图像质量(image quality)没有明显损失。
3. 如何从网站缩小视频（使用在线工具）
缩小视频的最简单方法之一是使用类似videosmaller.com网站提供的在线服务。我们使用这个网站来展示这个过程，但您可以使用Google来查找其他工具，因为在线上有许多此类工具可用。
在您最喜欢的网络浏览器(web browser)中，访问videosmaller.com。在其上，单击或点击Browse。
浏览(Browse)Windows 10计算机或设备(computer or device)以选择要缩小的视频。然后，单击或点击(click or tap)打开。(Open)
视频文件现在显示在浏览(Browse)字段中。单击或点击“上传视频”。("Upload Video.")如果需要，您还可以选中“使用低压缩级别（最佳质量）”("Use low compression level (best quality)")选项和/或从“缩放（减少）视频宽度”中选择一个值。("Scale (reduce) video width.")第一个设置为您提供质量更好的转换视频。尽管如此，尺寸的减少可能并不那么显着。第二个 - 比例 - 降低视频的分辨率，这使得转换后的视频文件(video file)更小，但质量更低。
等待(Wait)视频文件(video file)上传：您可以在浏览器左下角查看状态。
视频上传并转换后，您可以通过单击或点击“下载文件”("Download File")链接来获取其缩小版本，该链接还会告诉您压缩前后的大小。
一旦您下载了较小的视频文件(video file)，最好“从 [the] 服务器删除文件”。("delete the file from [the] server.")
使用这种方法，我们设法将一个 65MB 的视频压缩成一个只有 8.5MB 的视频。
4. 如何使用Handbrake缩小视频(Handbrake)
最后，另一个用于转换视频文件的流行工具是Handbrake。你可以从它的官方网站上(official website)得到它。下载并安装并打开它。然后，将要缩小的视频拖放到其上，或选择“文件（打开单个视频文件。）”("File (Open a single video file.)")并浏览您的 Windows 10 PC 以选择视频文件(video file)。
Handbrake加载您的视频文件(video file)后，您应该会看到一个包含许多选项和设置的窗口，如下图所示。不要被丰富的选项吓到：缩小视频非常容易，您只需要使用其中的一些设置和按钮。
在“摘要(Summary)”选项卡上，单击或点击“预设(Presets)”并浏览列表以选择最符合您对要缩小的视频的意图的视频配置文件。(video profile)请注意，为确保转换后的视频比原始视频小，您应该选择使用比初始视频更小的分辨率的预设。例如，如果您有一个以 1080p 分辨率拍摄的短视频，并且您想通过电子邮件将其发送给某人，您可以使用“Gmail Large 3 分钟 720p30”("Gmail Large 3 minutes 720p30")配置文件，这会将其分辨率降低到 720p，并且肯定会使其更小。同样，如果您想将视频上传到YouTube，请选择Vimeo YouTube之一(Vimeo YouTube)预设。此步骤提供了许多选项，因此获得较小视频而又不会造成太多质量损失(quality loss)的最佳方法是进行实验。
然后，在“格式(Format)”部分中，选择MP4和“网络优化”("Web Optimized")，以便您的较小视频与尽可能多的设备和平台兼容。
选择视频(Video)选项卡并选择H.264作为要使用的视频编解码器(Video Codec)。
在窗口的右下角，单击或点击(click or tap)Browse。
浏览(Navigate)您的 Windows 10 PC 并选择要保存较小视频文件(video file)的位置。此外，为它选择一个名称。然后，按保存(Save)。
返回手刹(Handbrake)窗口，单击或点击顶部功能区中的“开始编码”按钮。("Start encode")
Handbrake开始对视频文件(video file)进行编码，并在窗口底部显示进度。等待(Wait)它结束，然后您可以关闭Handbrake应用程序。
您现在可以在之前选择保存的位置找到较小的视频。正如您在下面的屏幕截图中看到的那样，使用我们告诉您的设置，我们设法将 65MB 的视频缩小到只有 18.4MB 的视频。
Handbrake有许多其他选项和设置可用于转换和压缩视频，但主要目的是使视频更小，我们向您展示的那些应该可以解决问题。如果您想了解更多有关使用Handbrake的信息，请查看官方文档(official documentation)。
为什么你想让你的视频更小？
现在您知道的不是一两种，而是四种不同的压缩视频文件的方法。您可以使用它们中的任何一个来制作更小的视频，您可以更轻松地在互联网上上传和分享。你最喜欢的方法是什么？您是否更喜欢使用我们未提及的其他工具来缩小视频文件？不要犹豫，在下面的评论中分享它们，以便其他人也可以听到它们。
4 ways to make a video smaller in Windows 10
Do you have a videо that you want to send to someone over the internet, but it is too big to do it via email, chat apps, or other similar servіces? Do yоu have to rеcord your homework and upload it on an e-learning рlatform ѕo that уour teacher can grade you? You mіght stumble upon an annoying size limіtatiоn that doesn't let you do that, simply because your Full HD video is too large. Regardless of your reasons, if уou want to learn how to make a video smaller, in terms of size, reаd this guide. Wе show severаl diffеrent ways to make vidеo files smallеr on any Windows PC:
1. How to make a video smaller with the Windows 10 built-in Video Editor app
Windows 10 comes bundled with one handy video editing app called simply Video Editor. Open it and load the video that you want to make smaller, by following the instructions from this guide: 12 things you can do with the Video Editor from Windows 10. If you don't have time to read the entire tutorial, the basics are these:
Click or tap on the Video Editor shortcut from the Start Menu, or look for it using the search from your taskbar.
Push the "New video project" button.
Choose a name for the new video that you're going to create, and press OK.
Drag and drop the video that you want to make smaller, onto the Video Editor window. Alternatively, you can also press the Add button and select the video.
In the Video Editor window, drag the video from the Project library and drop it on the storyboard from the bottom.
And now comes the essential part of the "making the video smaller" process: click or tap on the "Finish video" button from the top-right corner of the Video Editor window.
Video Editor opens a dialogue in which it asks you about the "Video quality." Click or tap on the preselected option, which should be "High 1080p (recommended)."
To make the video smaller, select Medium 720p or Low 540p. The Medium 720p makes the video smaller while not losing too much of its quality in the process.
However, if you need the smallest video file size possible, select the Low 540p option.
After you've made your choice, press the Export button and select the location where you want to save the smaller video on your Windows 10 PC.
Depending on the length and initial quality of the original video, the converted video file can be much smaller. For example, when we used Video Editor to make a 65MB video smaller using the Low 540p setting, the converted video file that we got had only 29MB.
2. How to make a video smaller with VLC
VLC is one of the most popular media players in the world, thanks to its ability to play almost any video and audio files out there. However, it can do much more than just play media files, and one of the things you might not know is that VLC can also compress video to make them smaller. If you don't already have it on your Windows 10 PC, you can get it from the official VideoLan VLC media player website.
Once you've installed VLC on your PC, launch it, open its Media menu, and click or tap on "Convert / Save." Alternatively, you can also simply press the Ctrl + R keys at the same time.
This shows a window called "Open Media." In the File tab, which is selected by default, push the Add button on the right.
Browse through your Windows 10 PC to find and select the video that you want to make smaller. Once you do that, click or tap on Open.
That adds the video to the list of files that are going to be converted by VLC. Click or tap on the "Convert / Save" button from the bottom-right corner of the window.
Click or tap on Profile and select one of the predefined video profiles. In our experience, the first one - Video - H.264 + MP3 (MP4) - is one of the best choices, as it's supported by almost every media player and online video sharing website. It also offers one of the best compression rates without compromising too much on video and audio quality.
You could leave this profile set as it is and you would still get good results making the video smaller. However, if you want to make sure that it is going to be small enough to fit your needs, you can further adjust the profile's settings. To do so, click or tap on the small wrench button next to it, and VLC gives you access to all the settings available.
One of the best ways to make sure the video is smaller than the original is to decrease its resolution. You can do that from the profile's settings, in the Video codec > Resolution tab. There, either choose to Scale down the video or manually input a new and smaller resolution, like we did in the screenshot below (we set the video width to 720 pixels, as the original had a resolution of 1080p). Once you've changed the settings as you want, click or tap Save.
Back in the Convert window, click or tap on Browse at the right side of the "Destination file" field.
Navigate through your Windows 10 PC to select the location of the newly converted video, and choose a name for it.
Back in the Convert window, click or tap the Start button.
Wait for VLC to convert and save the new video file. You can monitor the progress in real-time as it's displayed at the bottom of the VLC window.
When it's done, you can find the new video where you chose to save it. Using the settings we've mentioned earlier, we managed to transform a video that was 65MB in size, into a smaller video file that was just 16MB, without noticeable loss in image quality.
3. How to make a video smaller from a website (using online tools)
One of the easiest ways to make a video smaller is to use an online service like the one offered by the videosmaller.com website. We're using this website to show the process, but you can use Google to find others, as there are many such tools available online.
In your favorite web browser, go to videosmaller.com. On it, click or tap on Browse.
Browse through your Windows 10 computer or device to select the video that you want to make smaller. Then, click or tap on Open.
The video file is now shown in the Browse field. Click or tap on "Upload Video." If you want, you can also check the "Use low compression level (best quality)" option and/or select a value from the "Scale (reduce) video width." The first setting gives you a converted video with better quality. Still, the decrease in size might not be as significant. The second one - scale - lowers the resolution of the video, which makes the converted video file smaller, but at a lower quality.
Wait for the video file to upload: you can check the status on the bottom-left corner of the browser.
Once the video has been uploaded and converted, you can get the shrunk version of it by clicking or tapping on the "Download File" link, which also tells you how big it was before and after the compression.
Once you've downloaded the smaller video file, it is a good idea to "delete the file from [the] server."
Using this method, we managed to compress a video of 65MB into one of only 8.5MB.
4. How to make a video smaller with Handbrake
Finally, another popular tool designed for converting video files is Handbrake. You can get it from its official website. Download and install it and open it. Then, drag and drop the video that you want to make smaller onto it, or choose "File (Open a single video file.)" and browse through your Windows 10 PC to select the video file.
After Handbrake loads your video file, you should see a window filled with many options and settings, like the one below. Don't be scared by the wealth of options: making a video smaller is quite easy, and you only need to use a few of those settings and buttons.
On the Summary tab, click or tap on Presets and navigate through the list to select the video profile that matches best your intentions regarding the video that you want to make smaller. Note that, to make sure that the converted video is smaller than the original, you should choose a preset that uses a smaller resolution than the initial one. For example, if you have a short video filmed in 1080p resolution and you want to send it to someone via email, you could use the "Gmail Large 3 minutes 720p30" profile, which lowers its resolution to 720p and surely makes it smaller. Similarly, if you want to upload a video to YouTube, choose one of the Vimeo YouTube presets. This step offers many options, so the best way to get a smaller video without too much quality loss is to experiment.
Then, in the Format section, select MP4 and "Web Optimized" so that your smaller video is compatible with as many devices and platforms as possible.
Select the Video tab and choose H.264 as the Video Codec to use.
On the bottom-right corner of the window, click or tap on Browse.
Navigate through your Windows 10 PC and select the location where you want to save the smaller video file. Also, choose a name for it. Then, press Save.
Back in the Handbrake window, click or tap on the "Start encode" button from the ribbon at the top.
Handbrake starts to encode the video file and shows you the progress at the bottom of the window. Wait for it to end, and then you can close the Handbrake app.
You can now find the smaller video where you chose to save it earlier. As you can see in the screenshot below, using the settings we've told you about, we managed to shrink a video of 65MB into one that's just 18.4MB.
Handbrake has many other options and settings that you can use for converting and compressing videos, but for the main purpose of making videos smaller, the ones we've shown you should do the trick. If you want to learn more about using Handbrake, check the official documentation.
Why did you want to make your videos smaller?
Now you know not one or two, but four different ways to compress video files. You can use any of them for making smaller videos, which you can upload and share more easily on the internet. What's your favorite method? Do you prefer to make video files smaller using other tools that we didn't mention? Don't hesitate to share them in the comments below so that others can hear about them also.
