Compress Video with VLC but Losing Quality? See the Quick Fixes

Summary: In this post, you will learn how to compress video with VLC without losing quality. Detailed steps are included, with real test data and image quality comparison demonstrated.

Since VLC media player only caters to occasional needs, a professional video compressing tool is also introduced here to further reduce file size than VLC while preserving better quality.

4K/1080p video offers impressive visual experience. But do you know how much space a 1-min uncompressed 1080p video takes? Averagely 120-130 MB. Large video file size is a headache for most people, because video sharing sites, social media sites, and apps have file size limitation for video uploading.

Hence, video compression is frequently needed and can be realized by using a free video compressor - VLC. You can use VLC to compress videos for reducing file size and saving space. Or compress videos for fast uploading on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. VLC video compressing tool is also needed when you want to share video with friends via Email, WhatsApp and more.

How to Compress Video with VLC

Step 1. Go to VLC official page to download VLC. Note that VLC is a cross-platform program. Make sure you choose the right version for your system before clicking "Download VLC" button.

Step 2. Install VLC.

• Double click VLC setup file, then a window will pop to ask you to allow this program to make changes to your computer. You should click "Yes" to continue.
• You'll be asked whether to install optional VLC components or not. We suggest you to think twice before selecting those components. Otherwise, you'll have useless plugins. That would slow down the operating speed of your computer.



• When choosing the destination folder for VLC, 90% users have changed the default Disk C to other Disks to save space. Then click "Continue".
• A window will pop up to ask you to agree Network Access Policy. You have to click "Continue" to go on.

Step 3. After installing and launching VLC, you can start compressing video now:

• Click "Media" in the toolbar.
• Select "Convert / Save". You can also tap shortcut keys Ctrl + R to quickly open a new window.
• Click "Add", you can load one or more video files. Here, I'll choose a video shot by GoPro.
• After loading the video file you want to compress, click "Convert / Save" again.
• Choose your desired output profile type. With VLC, you can compress video to MP4, WebM, TS, and other formats.

Important notice: By clicking the wrench icon, you can access to the settings window, where you can customize parameters like codec, frame rate, bitrate, resolution, etc to change video file size. Here, we highly recommend you not to change the aspect ratio, i.e. not to scale the original video, because it will degrade the video quality and make this video useless.

• After customizing settings, click "Browse" to find a destination folder for the compressed video.
• Finally, click "Start" to shrink video size. Note: The whole compressing process may take a few minutes. During the compression, please do not close the window, or else the output video will be corrupted.

As showed above, compressing video with VLC is free. But it may be too complicated and slow for some users, especially for those who're not familiar with VLC and their computer configuration is old. Therefore, we'll also introduce an easier and faster way to reduce video file size - VideoProc Converter for all types of users.

How to Compress Video in High Quality with VideoProc Converter

Although VLC can compress video to some extent, it has some drawbacks:

• Low compression rate: Compared to professional video compressor software, VLC media player is less impressive in reducing file size.
• Slow compression speed: mainly designed as a media player, VLC hasn't been optimized for video compressions tasks in terms of encoding efficiency. It merely supports basic GPU acceleration, and can be very slow when compressing large video files, such as 4K, 2K, and high FPS videos.
• No bitrate control mode: Although there is an option to enter bitrate value before compression, VLC didn't offer bitrate control mode nor 2-pass encoding options. The consequence is, user cannot enjoy videos at smaller sizes while preserving similar quality.
• Undesired video pixelation: Reducing file size in VLC could result in video fragmentation and jittering, especially when there are lots of motion in the original video. It is possible due to the fact that VLC isn't good at allocating bitrate to complex scenes when compressing the video.

Don't worry if you have no interest in understanding the theories and terms behind video compression. With professional video compressor software - VideoProc Converter, you can reduce file size easily, achieving a much higher compression rate and better image quality than using VLC to compress video.

Method 1: Use High Efficiency Compression Codec

Best for these scenarios:

1. You prefer to compress video without losing much quality.
2. You are ok with changing codecs, and the destination device/platform can playback video in that codec.

For instance, you can compress H264 (AVC) video to H265 (HEVC) video, or transcode VP8 to VP9 to save up to 50% storage space.

Through the use of larger macroblocks, VP9 and H265 (HEVC) offer higher compression rates than VP8 and H264. In return, they require more computing resources to encode video. But the good news is, VideoProc Converter supports level-3 Hardware Acceleration to fully aid the compression and boost compression speed.

Steps to Compress Video with VLC Alternative Compressor:

Step 1. Click Video icon in VideoProc Converter, and import videos waiting to be compressed.

Step 2. In the target format section, choose MP4 HEVC as target format.

Or you can choose VP8, and click codec settings to change it into VP9.

Step 3. Enable Hardware Acceleration and click Run to start compressing the video.

Method 2: Easily Compress Video with Quality Settings in Profiles

Best for these scenarios:

1. You don't want all the hassle of learning terms and jargon in video compression.
2. You don't know which codec to use, and prefer the codec to stay the same as the original video.

Steps to Compress Video with VLC Best Alternative

To ease the mind of non-techie users, VideoProc Converter has pre-configured profiles baked in, making it a 1-click solution to reduce video file size. Click the buttons below to download VideoProc Converter for Windows or for Mac, and get started compressing video in this VLC alternative.

Step 1. Go to the Video panel from the main interface, and drag and drop videos into the working area.

Step 2. Choose a target profile that matches your source video.

• You can click on the i icon (information) on the video to check its codec information. Looking for info of its container format (MP4, MOV, MKV, etc) and its codec (H264, HEVC, MPEG-4, VP9, VP8, etc).
• Then in the target format section, choose a profile that uses the same container format and codec.
• For instance, if your source video is H264 MP4, then choose H264 MP4 as the target format to compress MP4.

Step 3. Change video quality settings.

• Click the gear icon next to the video, and choose whether you prefer default quality, high quality, or other in-betweens.
• If you don't know which one to choose, default quality is recommended.

Step 4. Click Run to compress video with VLC alternative compressor – VideoProc Converter.

Pro Tips: What Bitrate to Use

Depending on the source video resolution and frame rate, the recommended bitrate may vary. Here is a list of recommended bitrate for YouTube Video uploading. You can use it as a reference to reduce video file size with professional video compressor.

How to use this chart as a reference when compressing video?

There is an advanced codec setting in VideoProc Converter (enter by clicking the gear-shaped icon).

Inside the codec settings, you change the bitrate value by referring to the chart. For instance, the source video we tested is a game recording (1440p@60fps, 46 Mbps), and the recommended bitrate for 1440p@60fps is 24 Mbps according to the chart. As we can see, 46 Mbps is more than enough of what YouTube recommended.

Therefore, we can click manual bitrate mode, use ABR, and change the bitrate to 24 Mbps (24000 kbps) in VideoProc Converter.

Final Words

As the best alternative of compressing video with VLC, VideoProc Converter allows you to easily make MP4 smaller (and MOV/MKV/WAV audio and 370+ formats), with option to set desired output file size. Plus, it also gives you the power to convert and backup DVDs to digital formats, record on-screen action in 3 modes and more. In conclusion, VideoProc Converter is an easy, fast and high quality solution to meet your daily video compression needs!