Compressing your original video (on Mac)

This tutorial relies on an app called “Compress Any Video,” which is available on the Mac App Store for $4.

1. Open the Compress Any Video app (if you don’t have it, it is available on the Mac App Store).
   
   
2. Drag and drop the video you are trying to compress into the Compress Any Video window.
   
   
3. At the bottom of the window, slide the “Input” slider so that “output” is displayed as something comfortably under 500 MB-- around 475 MB is a good starting point.  (Once in awhile a video you compress will still be over 500 MB, which is why setting the slider lower than 500 is a good idea so you don’t have to redo your work.)
   
   
4. Drag the “output resolution” slider to the left to make the video physically smaller on the screen.  Doing this can help preserve quality while making the finished video’s file size smaller-- which not only helps fit the video into Canvas, but also makes it easier for your students to access.  This is good to do if your video does not contain any small visual details.  “Small visual details” can include things that you write by hand, reactions in test tubes, etc. 
   Recommended settings are:
   -- 1080 x (whatever number shows up)
   -- 720 x (whatever number shows up)
   If your finished compressed video doesn’t look good (or good enough) when you play it, then compress the original video again, and don’t make the output resolution as small.
   
   
5. Click “Compress Video,” indicate where you want your compressed video to be saved on your computer, click “Save,” and wait.  When the process finishes, you’re done!

As you get further into compressing your video, check out these tips on compressing.

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