Not long ago, it was unthinkable that a non-film format could be mass-exhibited in movie theaters worldwide. But today, the film industry shoots its movies in 4K digital format (or higher) and also shows its films in the same format. This is possible because 4K cameras support the embedding of professional lenses that cinema used in its analog stage. Of course, it also owes to the high recording quality of the 4K format, especially its 4,000 pixels of landscape resolution. For this reason, when we store videos in 4K, our hard drive space shrinks considerably. It is at this point that the five 4K video compressors come into play. All the compressors we list are free, highly efficient, and have several methods to reduce the size of a 4K video without significantly affecting its quality.
Handbrake
We'll start with Handbrake, a free transcoding program available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. With this compressor you can reduce the size of your 4K video from x264 to x265 format. The platform adjusts the frame rate, quality, and resolution of the video. You can use its preset options or do it manually. Here's a Handbrake guide to get the best result.
HitFilm Express
We continue with HitFilm Express, you surely know it for its video editing functions. But you can also use it to compress a video in 4K format. Its operation is very simple: you load the video into the editor and export it to obtain its properties; there you can transcode the video to x265 format, encode the bitrate, and adjust the output quality.
Avidemux
Avidemux is another open source and cross-platform video editor. The first thing you have to do is load the video into the editor interface and then configure the following properties: change the encoding format to x265, adjust the bitrate, frame rate, and video resolution, and then export it to get a compressed video.
OpenShot Video Editor
OpenShot Video Editor is also an open source video editor and cross-platform. When importing the video, you can use various compression profiles. Then manually you can adjust size, resolution, pixel aspect ratio, frame rate, encoding, and video quality among other options. When you finish, you export it to get a lighter video.
AV Video Converter
AV Video Converter is a video converter available for Windows operating systems. The environment allows you to change the video codec, quality, resolution, mode, and other audio properties. When you finish, you can convert the video to reduce its size. Remember that its free version is for non-commercial use.
With the five programs to reduce the size of your 4K videos, you'll have several options to free up space on your hard drive.
