The age of video on the web has just begun and the process of capturing video offline and sharing it online can be a time consuming, difficult and expensive process. To help you do this, the steps on this page will show you how to compress video with freeware.

Many video cameras in use today produce only high resolution video, which requires extensive processing and file compression for faster uploads online and for use on portable media players like the iPod or Zune. Professional video editing software like Adobe Premiere can cost $800 or more http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/ and require additional training before you can understand how to use it properly. Not everyone has that much time and money to spend just to upload some video on the web or on personal media players.

Thankfully if you own a computer, plus an optional DVD player for anyone interested in ripping a DVD, you have the most expensive tool you will need, outside of your camera, to become a video editing pro. Open source and freeware video software are available that will help you not only compress your videos into smaller files but will also allow you to edit them with professional features like transitions, text overlays and audio enhancements so your friends and family will actually enjoy watching your videos.

Your first step in selecting the right video software has much to do with the hardware or video source you use. If you use a PC computer then there are quite a few open source and freeware applications; if you use a Mac or Linux then there are fewer but still good choices. If you are importing video from a camera, you'll most likely need just one software application; if you are trying to compress encrypted DVD files you'll need DVD ripping software to capture the video to your harddrive first. Every video camera has it's own media storage and computer connection configuration. However, DVD ripping software has legal limitations on it. We'll leave it up to you to get your camera connected or DVD collection ripped and the videos transferred over to your harddrive and focus on what to do with video once it's on your harddrive.

What type of video software do you need?

If your video is ready to go and does not require any editing for length or content, then you may only need video compression software to create a smaller file size for faster uploads.

For video compression on Mac and Windows look at Prism from NCH Software http://www.nchsoftware.com/prism/, and for a universal multithreaded video transcoder, take a look at Handbrake http://handbrake.fr or MediaCoder http://www.mediacoderhq.com to determine if those will fit your needs.

For a more robust and full featured video encoder then take a look at RAD Video Tools http://www.radgametools.com or AVI Editor http://www.am-soft.ru/aviedit.html.

If you're video needs to be edited and you want to make some changes to the format and layout or splice multiple files together, then you will need video editing software. Video editing is a broad subject and professional video editors do a lot more with their videos than most of us so we'll focus on average users interested in using their existing video and computers to import, edit and compress video for web use.

Video Editing

With a PC you can use the Windows Operating System or Windows MovieMaker software to import pictures and videos from a variety of sources. Most other free video software applications have an import function that will access any type of media storage.

If your camera exports video in a specific file format such as AVI or MOV video then you will need to select a video software application that manages that particular file format. When searching for a free video application, you should consider which format you will be dealing with, what you intend on doing with the video, and how much editing or processing you will need.

Wikipedia.org maintains a complete list of available video editing software applications. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_editing_software. You may end up trying out more than one software application before you settle on which one works best for you, but once you have one installed they primarily do the same things.

Once you have installed video compression or editing software on your computer the second step would be to import a video file from your harddrive into the application for further processing. Video encoders allow you to change the output file format and compression settings to make a video file compatible with your media devices and smaller in size for uploading.http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_does_an_encoder_do Most video applications offer a File >> Import option which allows you to select the files to be imported from your hard drive. Some applications will allow you to import multiple files for batch compression operations or editing purposes.http://www.videohelp.com/tools/sections/video-encoders After selecting the desired files your application is ready to continue with further processing. For video compression software you will want to select the best output settings for your use and export your files in the next step. With video editing software you will now have the option to make edits including splicing multiple video files and adding transitions and overlays as desired.

How you edit your video may be limited by the video editor you use and what built in features are offered. Most video editing freeware applications offer built in transitions and editing techniques for basic video production. For more professional video usage you may need to customize existing settings as best you can or work with more than one software application to get exactly what you want. Once you have applied your video edits and produced a final version of your video you are then ready to export your video in the final step.

The process of exporting a final video is called rendering http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendering_%28computer_graphics%29, and this is an intensive process requiring quite a lot of computer power and time, in most cases. When you are exporting video, it is best to shut down all other applications and allow your computer to focus on the render process unless you have a very powerful computer with large RAM capacity.

For most online video sites, smaller file formats like MP4 and FLV are popular output formats which will sacrifice some video quality for the sake of file size. For use on portable devices such as Zune or iPod, you may need to export in proprietary formats such as WMV or MOV, which may require specific video editing software or plugins for other applications.

Check your device or desired use for what file format you will need in order to export your final product to. Remember to save the full version or a high resolution copy of any editing video you make.

Once you output the video to a lesser quality format, there is no going back. If you delete or edit the files, you may lose your original video. Your final video should now be ready for use on video sites and media devices as per your needs. You may require multiple file formats for some video files, and you may have to run the export process more than one time to export different file formats.