Compress QuickTime MOV Files on Mac

For Mac users, have some QuickTime MOV files that takes too much space on your local hard drive or doesn’t fit the memory card for your iPhone, iPad. Or the file size of your QuickTime MOV file is too larger and time consuming to upload to video sharing sites or sending via Email. The following article will show you 3 different ways to compress QuickTime MOV files on Mac for spacing saving and conveniently sharing purpose.

Method 1: Using QuickTime

Step 1: Open QuickTime MOV file in QuickTime.

Step 2: Click the File menu.

Select Export To and then Web. This will open a window with several options. You can change the name of the movie file if you’d like to distinguish between the original and the compressed copy.

Step 3: Select your quality.

You will be given three quality options when you export your movie. You can pick between Wi-Fi, Cellular, or Web. Choose the format that best suits the the method that you will be playing back the video.
– Cellular will provide the smallest size and the lowest quality. Use this if you will be watching the movie on a phone or tablet.
– Wi-Fi will provide medium quality and medium compression size. Use this if you will be streaming the video file over your home wireless network.
– Broadband will provide the highest quality compression, but will result in a file that is not much smaller than the original. Use this option when uploading a video to be streamed online.
– You can check multiple boxes to create multiple copies of the movie file with different compressions.

Related article: Compress MP4 Files |Compress Video for PowerPoint | Compress 4K to 1080p 

Method 2: Using Finder (OS X 10.7)

Step 1: Open the Finder.

Navigate to the QuickTime MOV file on your computer.

Step 2: Right-click the file.

Click Encode Selected Movie File from the bottom of the menu. This will open the Encode Media pop-up window.

Step 3: Choose your settings.

In the Setting menu, choose the resolution that you would like to encode the movie in. 1080P is the highest setting, and is the standard Hi-Definition resolution. 720P is lower quality but is also considered Hi-Definition.
– Choosing a resolution higher than the original resolution will not result in a better looking movie.
– You can also choose to just extract the audio in the Setting menu.

Step 4: Select compatibility.

If you plan to watch the movie on multiple devices, select “Greater compatibility” from the “Encode for” menu. This will make the format H.264 video and AAC audio, one of the most compatible formats available.

Step 5: Encode the movie.

Once you are satisfied with your settings, you can start the encoding process. You can see the target data rate and resolution in the Encode Media window, as well as compatible devices. Choose your destination and click Continue when you are ready.

Method 3: Compress QuickTime MOV with Pavtube Video Converter for Mac

Above listed 2 solutions are pretty convenient for Mac users who plan to compress video file size by adjusting video profile settings. In addition, all the compression method listed above will cause some quality loss to the final video. For Mac users, if you are looking for a combination method to compress QuickTime MOV files with either minimum quality loss or no quality loss, we highly recommend Pavtube Video Converter for Mac to you. With the program, you can flexibly compress QuickTime MOV file in the following different ways:

Minimum quality loss compression solutions:

– Change QuickTime MOV file to container file format with better quality but small file size such as WMV, FLV.
– Compress QuickTime MOV file with small resolution: For HD QuickTime MOV file with resolution of 1920×1080, it would be much ideal to reduce to 1280×720, 640×480, 640×360 and more resolutions.
– Lower video bitrate: Lowering the bit rate will bring about the decrease of the video file size. But please keep in mind the image quality will be bad in case you make the bit rate too low.
– Lower video frame rate: Lowering the frame rate of your video to 15 or 10 fps can reduce the file size by as much as 1/2 or 2/3.

No quality loss compression solutions

– Trim video length: Trim a longer QuickTime MOV files into shorter ones by cutting off unwanted parts or segments
– Crop video size: Crop a large file size QuickTime MOV file into many smaller file size area by removing off unwanted black bars or size area.
– Split large video: Split a large QuickTime MOV file into many smaller clips by file size, count or length.

Step by Step to Compress QuickTime MOV Files on Mac

Step 1: Load QuickTime MOV files.

Download the free trial version of the program. Launch it on your computer. Click “File” menu and select “Add Video/Audio” or click the “Add Video” button on the top tool bar to import QuickTime MOV files into the program.

Load QuickTime MOV file

Step 2: Output QuickTime MOV to small file.

Clicking the Format bar, from its drop-down list, output QuickTime MOV file to a small file size file with better quality such as “WMV” or “FLV” file.

Tips: WMV file is good for Email sending and space saving, while FLV is ideal for online video sites sharing.

Step 3: Lower output video resolution/bitrate/frame rate.

Click “Settings” on the main interface to open “Profile Settings” window, here, you can flexibly lower output video resolution, bit rate or frame rate under “Video Section”. Always make sure to keep a balance between the file size, bit rate, frame rate and video quality.

Step 4: Trim/Crop/Split QuickTime MOV files.

Trim QuickTime MOV file length

In the video editor window, choose the “Trim” tab and this tab is selected by default when the editing window appears. You can use the trim function to cut off unwanted parts from start and end. You can either drag pointers on the process bar or set exact time point in Start and End boxes to set.

Trim video length

Crop QuickTime MOV file size

The “Crop” facility enables users to get rid of the black edges and unwanted area of the image. In the video editor window, navigate to the “Crop” tab. Follow the below methods to crop selected video:
A: Crop video by dragging and dropping the crop frame. Simply move your mouse cursor to drag and adjust the green frame to desired position.
B: Crop video by setting values. There are “Simple Mode” and “Advanced Mode” under Crop feature.

Split QuickTime MOV into smaller parts

Click the split button on the file list to launch the Video Split window. Ticking “Enable” option, you can split the file by file count, time length, or file size.

Split large QuickTime MOV file

Step 5: Start QuickTime MOV file compression process.

Specify an output folder on your computer for storing the converted files. Then hit right-bottom “Convert” button to start to compress QuickTime MOV file on your computer.

When the conversion is completed, you will have no problem when do file uploading or emailing with compressed file size.

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