How to compress digital files

Digital files are big.You will have discovered this long before buying a video recorder if you have spent much time working with itunes and sound files.This is the reason that the new ipods have almost as much memory space as laptop computers.It takes that kind of space to save the files.

You may find out that the storage space necessary to store your videos and the time it takes to input or download them is too great.If the size of your files is getting you down, there are several things you can do to reduce the file size without impacting (much) the quality of your video.All of your options are associated with compression but you will find that you can use compression in different ways.

Compressing something is just what it sounds like.It is an action that makes something denser, meaning you get the same information in less space.When you compress your digital files, you are virtually "squeezing" the file, to get rid of the fluff and preserve the important parts of the file.There are several ways to do this, no matter which way you use, the key is to compress the files just enough that the quality of the video doesn't suffer.

Most cameras will have options right on the camera that allow you to record more or less information.Your camera might have the capability to record 10 mega pixels but the truth is you will almost never need to capture more than about three mega pixels.Mega pixels loosely translate into number of lines of resolution when you are viewing the video.Televisions are only able to display about 525 lines of resolution (which is equal o about three mega pixels), beyond that, the additional mega pixels are essentially useless.

Similarly, to reducing the number of mega pixels per inch to save space on your recording, some cameras offer the option of recording a different number of frames per second.If your camera has this option, experiment with the frames per second and find out if recording fewer frames per second will make any difference in the video you are shooting. Reducing the frames per second will essentially compress your file as you shoot it, making a smaller file that holds the same amount of information.To look for this feature on your camera, go through the file menu and look for options of MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4.MPEG-2 is the standard video compression setting and it reduces 2 hours of video about 10 to 15 times.

Compression software can be purchased and downloaded from the web or it can be purchased commercially and installed on your home computer.When looking for compression software, you will need to decide between "lossless" and "lossy" compression.

Lossless compression means that none of the data gets lost.The technology behind lossless compression is the same as the technology behind zip files.Basically, the software "zips" the file and when you re-compress it, there is no loss at all.This is a great way to store video; the problem is that anytime you open the files they re-compress.That means that while the storage space is small, the space the files take up when you are using them is huge-just as big as if they had never been compressed at all.

Lossy compression is a more popular form of compression.When you use lossy compression software, it deletes unimportant or redundant information.If you are videoing a static background, the background only needs to be saved once.By removing the redundant information from all but the first frame of a video, you will save a ton of space with out jeopardizing the quality of your finished product at all.