I've been shooting a lot of 4K footage on my phone and it's eating up my storage. I need to compress these videos for uploading to YouTube but I don't want them to look terrible. What's the best tool or method for this?
The key is using H.265 codec (HEVC) instead of H.264, which can cut file sizes roughly in half while keeping similar quality - most video editing software like DaVinci Resolve or Premiere Pro support this, and it's what YouTube prefers anyway. If you want something simpler, tools like HandBrake are free and let you dial in exactly how much compression you want by adjusting the bitrate (I'd suggest starting around 15-20 Mbps for 4K and seeing how it looks). Also consider dropping the frame rate from 60fps to 24fps if your content doesn't need the smoothness, since that alone cuts data significantly. The trick is exporting at a bitrate that's high enough your phone footage still looks crisp but low enough to actually save space - takes some trial and error but beats re-shooting everything.
I've been messing around with video compression for some personal projects, and handbrake is genuinely your best bet if you want something free and straightforward - it'll let you use H.265 encoding which crushes file sizes, though the trade-off is longer processing time. Before you dive into re-encoding everything though, what's your upload bandwidth like? YouTube actually re-compresses anyway, so sometimes the sweet spot is just getting it small enough to upload reasonably fast rather than obsessing over bitrate. Are you uploading original files or already editing them down?
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