Tutorial 03: Video Compression with HandBrake (Windows) 🎞️

Tutorial 03: Video Compression with Handbrake (Windows) 🎞️

🩷Donation link: https://paypal.me/os202x?locale.x=en_GB&country.x=GB

ℹ️ You can also click on the 'donate' image in the sidebar 👉. 

ℹ️ The link will come up with a business name 'Emperortech Limited'. Yes, this is me (I'm an independent designer and developer from the United Kingdom). I'm currently on the other side of the world in Cambodia, and this is the only PayPal account I have until I create a personal one. 

---------------------------------------------------------

In a previous blog post titled: Data Logging Essentials for Targeted Individuals 📈, I briefly touched upon the subject of video compression and how it can save you a lot of space on your storage media (hard drive) especially if you frequently capture videos with your action camera.

I also recommended 'HandBrake' as the best possible application for handling video compression tasks. 

In this blog post, I'll be teaching you how to transcode and compress videos from your MicroSD card (from your camera) to an external hard drive or any other storage location of your choice.

ℹ️ In order to complete this tutorial, you'll need the following:

✅ A computer (Windows 7+).
✅ An external or internal hard drive.
✅ MicroSD card from your action camera.
✅ A MicroSD card reader. 
✅ Basic computing skills.
✅ An internet connection.
✅ Handbrake installed on your system

For this tutorial, I'll be using Windows 11. The tutorial also applies to any windows operating system above 7. 

Relevant download links:

- https://handbrake.fr

---------------------------------------------------

The tutorial will be divided into the following sections:

🔖 What is HandBrake ?
🔖 How do I compress my videos ?

----------------------------------------------------

🔖 What is HandBrake ?

Handbrake is a multi-platform open-source tool, built by volunteers, for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs.

In other words, handbrake makes it very easy for you to convert and compress your videos using a wide range of presets and a wealth of other video formatting options. 

One of the most useful features that makes handbrake an indispensable video transcoding application is its batch processing capabilities. You can queue a list of videos and transcode them while you attend to other things.

Yes, when you compress a video, you end up loosing a tiny bit of quality. Sometimes, it isn't even noticeable. However what you gain in return is a much smaller file size which will save you a lot of space on your hard drive.

Video compression is especially important if you own an action / sports camera, seeing as the average size of one video segment is between 400 - 800MB for videos captured at 1080P (depending on the brand of the camera).

If you decide to capture at a resolution of between 2K - 4K ? Then each video segment will be about 1.5GB.

Some even smaller action cameras have a fixed recording resolution of 1080P, so video segments easily fit within the 400 - 800MB size range. Initially when I began taking video logs, I used the classic action cameras with removable batteries. Those type of action cameras let you choose the resolution you wish to capture at. 

Classic action camera: Introducing the PSATU 2 by Surfola

These days, I have abandoned the classic action cameras for much smaller and much more portable options with internal batteries. I just find them much easier to deal with. 

🔖 How do I compress my videos ?

- The first step you need to take is to eject the MicroSD card from your action camera. This is a simple step that should know how to easily accomplish.

- The next step is to insert the MicroSD card into a MicroSD card reader. A MicroSD card reader will be what you use to connect the MicroSD card to your computer. Below are examples of MicroSD card readers:

Different kinds of MicroSD card readers

N.B.: Some action cameras allow you to connect directly to your computer using a Micro-USB or USB-C cable (this is with the MicroSD card still inside the camera). I would strongly advise against this method based on my past experiences.

- The next step is to download the HandBrake application from the official website at https://handbrake.fr:

Download the handbrake application

- Once you've downloaded the HandBrake application, you can begin installing it by double-clicking the file you just downloaded. A couple of dialog boxes will pop-up. Just agree to all of them.

- Once you've installed the handbrake application, go to your desktop and search for the HandBrake icon to make sure you've installed it properly. You can also search for the application using the start menu:

HandBrake application

- Now plug the Micro-USB card  reader to your computer. You can also plug in your external hard drive if you have one. 

- Open a windows explorer window and navigate to the directory of your MicroSD card. Videos are usually saved in a folder named 'VIDEO':

Windows explorer: The video folder in the MicroSD card

- Open another explorer window by pressing CTRL + N (or tab in windows 11) and navigate to the folder where you wish you save the transcoded videos. When you get to that location, you can create a new sub-folder there by pressing CTRL + SHIFT + N simultaneously. You can name this folder whatever you want. 

For this example, I have named mine 30_31072025.

Creating a destination folder where your transcoded videos will be saved

- Double-click on the new folder you've just created to go inside it. When you're inside this empty folder, right-click on the address bar at the top to reveal a context menu. On that menu, click on 'COPY ADDRESS'. 

Copying the path of the new destination folder

- Now go to the handbrake icon on your desktop and double-click it to start the application. You should see this:

Launching Handbrake

- Open the explorer window of your MicroSD card, press CTRL + A simultaneously to select all the videos there, and then drag all the selected videos into handbrake.

Dragging and dropping videos into handbrake

- A progress bar will pop-up showing that the videos are importing. 

- You'll now be taken to the main handbrake interface. It might look intimidating at first, but don't worry I'll take you through only what you need to get the job done. Click on the 'preset' bar, and select the preset you wish (see image below).

For this tutorial I've decided to select the 'very fast 480p 30FPS' preset because it will compress the existing 1080P videos on the MicroSD card while still maintaining a decent video quality and frame rate.

Selecting the transcoding preset

- We now need to set a destination folder for all the videos we want to transcode because if you remember, this is a batch transcoding job, and we want handbrake to work on all the videos one by one. We've already created the folder where we wish to store the videos so we're good.

Go to the menu bar at the top left of the screen and click on 'TOOLS' and then 'PREFERENCES'.

You will now be taken to the preferences.

Under preferences, go to the 'OUTPUT FILES' section and do the following:

- Under the 'default path' field, paste (CTRL + V) the path of the empty folder that was created earlier on. 

- Make sure you tick the box that says 'Automatic file naming'. This is very important.

Once you're done with this, click the 'BACK' button at the top left to go back to the main handbrake interface.

Changing the settings

Now that you're back on the main screen, please complete the following steps:

- Click on the 'TITLE' tab to display a list of your videos, and select the second title on the list. Once you've selected it. Do the same thing again, but this time select video number '1'. This is done to ensure that the destination path is registered for all the videos.

Preparing for transcoding

- Click on the little arrow on the button 'ADD TO QUEUE' and then select 'ADD ALL'.

- Check the field at the bottom of the screen to make sure the path is correct.

Adding all the videos to the queue and making final checks

If you've done everything correctly, you will see a blue indicator on the queue button. Click on this button.

Click the 'QUEUE' button

Another window will pop up. Click on the 'START QUEUE' button, and the transcoding will begin.

Starting the transcoding tasks

Once all the videos have successfully transcoded, you'll notice that there will be green tick marks beside them.

This means you can now shut down the handbrake application by pressing the red X at the top right of the window.

All transcoding tasks have now been completed

Congratulations ! You've just successfully transcoded and compressed a batch of videos.

Let us now do the side by side comparative analyses:

The original / source folder on the MicroSD card consisted of 16 videos that weighed in at a total of 6.02 GB.
The destination folder on my computer hard drive consists of 16 transcoded videos that weigh in at a total of 203 MB.
What this means is that HandBrake just saved me 5.86 GB of space. That's incredible !

Below is a side by side comparison video of the original 1080P capture versus the compressed 480P resolution (output file). I picked the same video segment from each folder to conduct the comparison.

Below are still images taken from the video comparison (click on an image to enlarge):

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is evident from the comparisons that the 480P video output is not as sharp as the original 1080P capture. It has slightly less detail.

This is normal as we are downscaling the video.

However, when we take into consideration the incredible space that has been saved through video compression, I think that slight drop in fidelity is something I'm willing to accept.

Note: If you have any questions or run into any issues, then please feel free to drop me a comment in the comments sections beneath this post. I'll do my best to assist you. 

Dear readers, I hope you've found this blog post useful to you in some way.

Thanks for your time today, stay tuned for the next post, and see you soon !

ℹ️ Please bookmark, comment, like, and subscribe for the latest updates.

Yours Sincerely,

ø§ LøneWølf 🐺