Why compress videos to smaller sizes?
The quick answer is speed. Having large files of any kind, not just videos, will slow down your website. Who wants a slow website?
Video content is awesome, but using it too much can harm your site. We made your site with love and we don’t want to see it suffering.
Thats why we want to keep it healthy. If you’re going to host videos on your site, we suggest you optimise them for web first.
You can follow these guides:
If you’re still intrigued by why you should optimise the videos, here is the long answer:
- Faster Loading Times: Smaller file sizes mean faster loading times for web pages. When users visit a website, especially on mobile devices or with slower internet connections, they prefer content that loads quickly. Large video files can significantly slow down page loading times, leading to user frustration and potentially higher bounce rates.
- Bandwidth Conservation: Hosting and streaming large video files can consume a significant amount of bandwidth, especially for websites with high traffic volumes. By reducing the size of video files, website owners can conserve bandwidth, potentially reducing hosting costs and ensuring smoother delivery of content to users.
- Improved User Experience: Users appreciate a seamless browsing experience. Smaller video file sizes contribute to smoother playback, fewer buffering issues, and overall better user experience. Users are more likely to engage with content that loads quickly and plays smoothly without interruptions.
- Compatibility: Smaller video files are more likely to be compatible with a wide range of devices and platforms. Some users may be accessing your website from devices with limited storage or older hardware that struggle to handle large video files. By optimizing video file sizes, you increase the likelihood that your content will be accessible to a broader audience.
- Storage Efficiency: Smaller video file sizes require less storage space on servers. This is particularly beneficial for websites that host a large amount of video content. By optimizing file sizes, website owners can better manage their storage resources and accommodate more content within their hosting plans.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Page speed is a crucial factor in search engine rankings. Search engines like Google consider loading times when ranking websites in search results. By reducing the size of video files and improving page load times, you can potentially improve your website’s SEO performance and visibility.
In summary, smaller video file sizes contribute to faster loading times, better user experience, lower bandwidth consumption, improved compatibility, efficient storage utilization, and potentially enhanced search engine rankings. As a result, optimizing video file sizes is essential for delivering high-quality multimedia content on the web.
Video file size compression: lossless vs. lossy.
To reduce file size, you can use two types of compression — lossless and lossy. What’s the difference between the two? Lossless compression is a way to reduce file size without losing quality — this is what happens anytime you create a ZIP file. In this scenario, the original data is preserved, and nothing is thrown out. On the other hand, lossy compression shrinks the file size by throwing out extra, unnecessary data.
You’ll want to choose lossless compression if you want to preserve your video in its original quality. However, if a similar copy is “good enough,” lossy compression can make your video files even smaller, which in turn can make sharing them even more manageable.
I have paid thousands of dollars for my 4 video and I want to use it in 4k
Using 4K videos online can often be considered pointless for several reasons:
- Bandwidth Consumption: 4K videos have significantly larger file sizes compared to lower resolutions like 1080p or 720p. Streaming 4K videos requires a considerable amount of bandwidth, which can be impractical for many users, especially those with slower internet connections or limited data plans. This can lead to longer buffering times, playback interruptions, and a poor user experience.
- Device Compatibility: Many devices, especially older or budget-friendly ones, may not support 4K resolution playback. This includes smartphones, tablets, laptops, and even some desktop computers. For users accessing content on such devices, serving 4K videos is unnecessary since they cannot fully appreciate the higher resolution anyway. It also increases the likelihood of compatibility issues and playback errors.
- Storage and Hosting Costs: Hosting and serving 4K videos require more storage space and bandwidth, leading to higher hosting costs for website owners. Storing large 4K video files can quickly eat up server resources, especially for websites with extensive video libraries. This can become financially unsustainable, particularly for smaller businesses or independent content creators.
- Diminished Visual Impact: The difference in visual quality between 4K and lower resolutions may not be significant, especially on smaller screens or when viewed from a typical viewing distance. While 4K resolution offers sharper details and enhanced clarity, the improvement may not be noticeable enough to justify the increased file size and bandwidth requirements, particularly for casual viewers.
- Limited Audience Benefit: Only users with high-resolution displays and fast internet connections can fully appreciate the benefits of 4K video. For the majority of users, particularly those accessing content on mobile devices or older computers, the difference between 4K and lower resolutions may be negligible. Serving 4K videos to such users provides little to no added value.
- Production Costs: Creating and editing 4K videos often requires specialized equipment, software, and expertise, which can significantly increase production costs for content creators. This investment may not be justified if the majority of the audience cannot fully utilize or appreciate the higher resolution.
In summary, while 4K videos offer superior visual quality, their practicality for online usage is limited due to factors such as bandwidth consumption, device compatibility, storage costs, diminished visual impact for many viewers, and higher production expenses. For most online content, using lower resolutions like 1080p or 720p is more practical and efficient, providing a balance between visual quality and accessibility.