compressing videos with handbrake tutorial · wilmington university [email protected] 1 compressing...
TRANSCRIPT
Wilmington U
niversity
edtech
@wilmu.edu
1
Compressing Videos with Handbrake
Handbrake is free, open source video transcoder for PC or Mac that will allow you to compress large
videos to work better with platforms like Taskstream and Kaltura. Videos shot on iOS devices like
iPhones and iPads shoot very large video files that you’ll want to compress (transcode) before uploading
to Kaltura or Taskstream.
First, you’ll want to download Handbrake from the official site: https://handbrake.fr/
Make sure you are downloading from a safe, legitimate website – it is always important to download
software from the official website. If you are unsure, you can check the safety of a website or link
before downloading at: https://safeweb.norton.com/
After downloading, installing, and running Handbrake you can proceed with the video transcoding. If
you’ve shot a video on your phone or tablet that you want to compress, you’ll want to copy the videos
out of your device onto your computer hard drive using the software that came with your device (like
iTunes.)
Wilmington U
niversity Educational Technology
2
1. Browse for your source file on your computer using the Source button in Handbrake.
Note that the video above is over 1 gigabyte in size (1,038,103 kb.)
Wilmington U
niversity Educational Technology
3
2. Select the destination folder for the converted video. (This is where your final video will be
created for later uploading to Kaltura or Taskstream.)
Select the folder where you want to store the video and give it a name (or use the default file
name created by Handbrake)
3. Next, using the Normal preset, select your encoding options. You will not need to change
many of the settings (though Handbrake has many options.)
a. The container should be set to MP4.
b. Select the Video tab and change the Quality setting to Avg. Bitrate and enter 1500 in the
text area. This will be a good starting point for conversion. Nothing else needs to be
changed at this point.
Wilmington U
niversity Educational Technology
4
4. Press the Start button to begin the video transcoding.
5. After handbrake has finished converting, navigate to the folder containing your converted video.
Double click the video and play it to make sure that the quality is sufficient for your needs. Note
that in this case the video is now about 100 mb, or roughly 10 times smaller than the original file
Wilmington U
niversity Educational Technology
5
size.
6. If when you play the video you find the quality is insufficient, you can return to step 3b and try a
higher bitrate. (Try increasing incrementally until you reach the desired quality. 1750, 2000,
2500, etc.) In most cases you will find that 1500 is ideal for these types of video assignments. In
the above example there will no discernable quality difference for the average viewer, but
different videos may yield different results.
If you have questions or require additional assistance contact [email protected]
regarding any and all video and multimedia topics.