If your Zoom recordings are too large, it is possible to reduce their file size using third party applications. We recommend using the application, Handbrake, to resize your video files before sending these to other people.
Click to Download Handbrake
Why should I reduce the size of my video file?
The main reasons are network related. In New Zealand, most residential homes have access to good quality internet with fast speeds and large (or non-existent) data capacity. This is not necessarily the case for rural centers or overseas locations.
Because of this, we recommend that you consider how large your files are before sending these to participants, and resize these files if appropriate.
Before/After: What actually happens when your file is resized?
When you select Record in Zoom, Zoom begins recording your Meeting in from that point until you either a) Pause/Stop Recording, or b) the Meeting is ended.
Zoom then processes the recording, converts that footage to a file called an MP4, and then stores it either on your computer or on the Cloud (depending on which option you chose when you started recording).
This MP4 file is essentially unprocessed, “raw” footage of the Zoom Meeting. The quality of the recorded video and audio will be the same as they were in the Meeting itself, when it was live.
By reducing the quality of this recording only slightly, we can also often reduce the file size by a significant amount (we should be careful not to reduce the quality by too much, however)! Handbrake allows us to do this easily, with one tickbox! See how to do this below.
Reducing the size of your files
Here is a video to illustrate how to resize your video files. Alternatively, you can follow along with the step-by-step instructions below.
- Download the Handbrake application from their official website.
- Install Handbrake to your computer.
- Open Handbrake, and select “Source” then select “File” from the menu that appears.
- Go to the Zoom recording that you want to resize (These are normally stored in Documents -> Zoom), click it and press Open.
- Next, give a Destination where you want the resized file to be saved to. Select “Browse”, then go to the folder where you want to save the file to. Once there, type in a name for the resized file.
- Once you’ve done this, make sure that the Container field has “MP4” selected, then select “Web Optimized”.
- Now, press “Start” at the top of the Handbrake window.
- There will be a progress bar along the bottom of the window to give you an indication of how long it will take to resize your file. Once it is completed, open the new, resized file in the location you selected in Step 5. Make sure that it looks, and sounds okay, before sending to others.
