How to reduce the source video file size

You are about to run out of a hard disk free space and still not ready to decide which home video is worth storing and which should be deleted? Of course nowadays you can just use your DVD-R drive and burn as many DVDs as you want to free your hard disk space but it’s not the way out for you because you need an instant access to your media instead of spending time in searching for the necessary disc among hundreds of them. The way out is to reduce the size of all the home video you have on your hard disk using AVS Video Converter so to have extra free space. The steps below will help you to solve your issue successfully.

Step 1: Download and install AVS Video Converter

Download AVS Video Converter , run AVSVideoConverter.exe and follow the installation wizard instructions.

Step 2: Launch AVS Video Converter and select your input video file

Launch AVS Video Converter and click the Browse button placed to the right of the Input file name area to select the video file which size you want to reduce:

Select the desired video file and click Open:

Step 3: Set an output file format

After having selected your input video file, pay attention to the toolbar placed at the top area of AVS Video Converter window. Click the button corresponding to your input video file format:

Note: if you want to change the format of your output file as well as to reduce its size (the most common case is the conversion of a home DVD into AVI format), please read ‘How to convert between all popular video formats?‘ guide additionally.

Step 4: Estimate the input and output files parameters

Click the Advanced button to see the additional file parameters:

Click the Advanced button to see the additional file parameters:

?hoose the File Information tab that will help you compare the input and output file parameters. Pay attention to the following properties that should be the same in the Input File and Output File columns correspondingly: Video Size - i.e. video image width and height, Frame Rate and Aspect:

If the corresponding values of the Output File column for Video Size, Frame Rate differ then click the Edit Profile button to correct them. The Profile Editor window will appear. Make necessary changes (input values which are equal to those of the input file) in appropriate control boxes and click OK to apply changes:

Note: if your output file format differs from MPEG or DVD then there is no necessity to correct an aspect value (changing the image width and height values is quite enough). If your output format is MPEG or DVD you might have to choose the Aspect Correction tab and set the appropriate ratio.

Step 5: Edit the video and audio bitrate

To reduce the video file size saving its format means to set a lesser video and audio codecs bitrate for an output file as compared with an input one. Click the Edit Profile button to open the Profile Editor window again and set a lesser value in editbox labelled as Bitrate in Video Codec section and click OK to confirm changes made. You can also reduce an audio bitrate value if it turned out to be more than that of the input file:

Note: the less bitrate value you set, the less both the file size and image/audio quality you get.

Step 6: Assign the directory for saving the output file

Choose the directory to save. To do that click the Browse button placed to the right of the Output File Name area:

Specify the directory for saving the result and click Save:

Step 7: Start the reduction and check the result

Everything is ready to start the reduction procedure. Click the Convert Now! button:

The process will take some time depending upon your hardware, the input file size, its format and parameters applied. After that you can find your reduced output video in the destination folder.