Converting Video files to "less heavy": How ?

[vanhaze]

Dear All,


I have some videofiles, shot by a Drone.
Video specs:

Format: H.264
FPS: 60
Data rate: 69 MBit/s

My dad can't play these video files succesfully on his 15 year old Mac Pro.
They play very stuttery on his system, not smooth at all.

So i was thinking:
Can i use Reaper as a video converter, so converting the video files in Reaper
to a format (other FPS, other Data rate, other format maybe) so they are "less heavy" to play on such an old mac pro.

Could anyone recommend me the video settings to use for this application ?


Thx in advance.

[TonE]

ffmpeg? command-line, more powerful?

https://superuser.com/questions/3200...eo-with-ffmpeg

[vanhaze]

I wanna thank you for your response but i don't have a clue what you're talkin' about.

[cyrilfb]

It may be doable in Reaper but not optimal.

If you like visual interfaces, free Handbrake software is quite useful.
https://handbrake.fr/

Depending on your resolution needs, I would try changing the fps to 30 and the file type to mp4 (pretty common youtube settings).

It should result in a smaller faster file.

[vanhaze]

Aha, very useful info, thank you !
I will try use Handbrake with your recommended settings.
One more question:
I assume lowering the FPS will result in a lower Data rate ?
Or are those 2 in no relationship with eachother ?
Sorry, i am a Video Noob.

[TonE]

Dear vanhaze, Reaper uses ffmpeg itself in the background. But you can use it directly as well, without any Reaper, just for conversion purposes, e.g. from .mp4 to .mp3 or as in your case from video format a to video format b. Many example codes, you should find in my given link above.

How many files you want to convert? Command line is especially useful when you want to apply this technique to many files at once, as many as you want, you can go drinking coffee, and the computer would do all for you. This is the advantage of using command line programs, rather than gui programs, programs with a graphical user interface (gui), command line means, there is no gui, only a terminal where you can type some code line, and it will do whatever its meaning is, this is typical unix/linux style of using programs, via the many gnu programs, or any other additional command line program, like here ffmpeg.

FPS is frames per second, frame is an image in that video, if you use 60 fps, this means 60 images per second, and if those images are in very high quality it might demand more cpu from your computer. Codecs like mp4 try to use techniques not updating pixels which do not change their color, for example, similar to mp3, just optimized algorithms, so files get smaller. 30 fps are already enough, you could even go down to 15 fps, and see if the quality is good enough for your scenario. If you do not want to learn playing instruments or so from those videos, with quick fingering changes or so, you can live with 15 fps, I guess. Just try yourself.

Have fun my friend.

[cyrilfb]

Originally Posted by vanhaze

I will try use Handbrake with your recommended settings.
One more question:
I assume lowering the FPS will result in a lower Data rate ?
Or are those 2 in no relationship with eachother ?

I am not an expert this is the way I understand it.

There is not really a relationship between the two measures.
fps = frames per second which is the number of pictures (frames) per second displayed. This controls the smoothness or choppiness of the motion you see. My youtube videos are usually 24 fps or less. The fewer frames per second the smaller the file and the less work your computer has to do.

Data rate = I think of this as the quality of an image (maybe frame?). The higher the date rate the higher the quality of the image. Your videos data rate is quite high. The highest recommended by youtube is 44-56Mps. The lower the bit rate the smaller the file and the less work your computer has to do.

I keep using youtube standards because they by nature want the best viewer experience for the least computer work and file size. Their recomendations are here:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171?hl=en

Play around with different settings and see what gives you the best viewing with the least stuttering and most usable resolution.

[vanhaze]

@TonE &cyrilfb:

Many thx for taking the time to write very helpful answers !
It's all much clearer to me now.
@TonE: i will dive into the superuser URL you posted !

[Kundalinguist]

You could also use Blender - a free 3D software - into which you can import the video and then export it in various formats and frame rates. They've used it for animation films, so it's pretty robust, especially after the 2.8 release.

[vanhaze]

Sounds neat, thanks for the tip !