This tool aims to humbly participate in stopping the race for ever
more quality and bandwidth (8K resolution, 5G network, etc.) by
offering a simple way to radically reduce the size of a video.
The digital world’s contribution to the footprint of humanity is
currently around 4% (see
this report from GreenIT.fr
and
this another report from The Shift Project). This is more than
the aviation, and it is predicted to grow in the future.
Online video does NOT represent the main impact of the digital
world, manufacturing is a much bigger deal. But reducing the
size of a video can help keep our old devices that have limited
bandwidth and limited computing power, instead of buying new ones.
Apply settings from The Shift Project (720p, CRF 22, 160 kbits/s)
The Shift Project has published a guide for reducing the size of a
video while maintaining a good quality
You can download it
here.
Basically, it reduces the video resolution to 720p and the audio
bitrate to 160 kbits/s. The Constant Rate Factor (CRF) is set to 22.
Lower video resolution (480p)
It reduces the video resolution to 480p. Don't watch it on your 4K TV,
otherwise it is OK.
Lower video quality (CRF 28)
It reduces the Constant Rate Factor (CRF) to 28. You won't see tiny
details but the essential is there.
Lower audio bitrate (56 kbits/s)
It reduces the audio bitrate to 56 kbits/s. If the audio is mainly
speeches, it should remain audible.
One image every 5 seconds (!)
For some videos, like conferences, there is not much action and you
can easily understand what happens even with one image every 5 seconds
Black and white
Aesthetic and lightweight
This tool uses
FFMPEG.WASM
to edit the video directly in the browser!
You can download
FFMPEG
to try these settings directly on your computer
Apply settings from The Shift Project (720p, CRF 22, 160 kbits/s)
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -s hd720 -c:v libx264 -crf 22 -vf "scale=iw*sar:ih,setsar=1" -c:a aac -b:a 160k output.mp4
Lower video resolution (480p)
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -s hd480 -c:v libx264 -crf 22 -vf "scale=iw*sar:ih,setsar=1" output.mp4
Lower video quality (CRF 28)
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 -crf 28 -vf "scale=iw*sar:ih,setsar=1" output.mp4
Lower audio bitrate (56 kbits/s)
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:a aac -b:a 56k output.mp4
One image every 5 seconds
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "fps=fps=1/5" output.mp4
Black and white
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "hue=s=0" output.mp4
This whole approach is inspired by image dithering (see
here for an
example), which removes a lot of data in the image while preserving
its essential meaning