Downloading a video and reducing its size without cutting bits from it

[#1]

About 18 months ago I found some youtube recordings of a radio comedy from my youth, and I downloaded them using 4k Video Downloader. I don't remember if they arrived as MP4s, or whether I had to use Any Video Converter to change them, but they are on my pc in MP4 format and taking up about 35M disk space each. Today I found some more recordings so downloaded them. These turn up in MKV format and each take up over 122M disk space. If I then use Any Video Converter to convert them to MP4 to try to make them smaller, they take up nearly 400M disk space.

Any ideas how I can get them down to about 35M like the older files? The new files are taking up huge amounts of my hard drive.

Thankyou. Take care

[#2 · Accepted solution]

If they are MP4, have they got a video track?  Eg, if you play one with, say, VLC do you get any images, even a static image?

Now there are probably simpler tools you can use but with VLC to change the bit rate:

  Menu Media -> Convert/Save
       +Add  (files)
 then
    Select Convert/Save->Convert
    Set profile to Audio-MP3, 
       choose the spanner symbol,
       use the Audio Codec tab, and set the "bit rate" to something low, say, 64kb/s
   Hit Save
  Specify a destination file name

[#3]

Hello @Simon_F ,

Thankyou for that. I've tried it out on one file, and the size has plummetted (not sure about that spelling). It lost the image, but that isn't a problem - the original was a photo of the Monty Python team, when the radio programme is I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again (am I showing my age/mental state?). The file size has gone from 122M (MKV format) to 396M (MP4 with image) to 770k (MP4 without image, 128kb/s to 64kb/s or whatever the 128 and 64 were values of).

Brilliant

[#4]

">I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again (am I showing my age/mental state?). "
With the likes of the (very sadly) late Tim Brooke-Taylor?    I had some on my car audio system for a while.

By chance, they weren't obtained with g*t_iplay*r ?

(Also just noticed that we almost share the same "forum birthday" 🙂  )

[#5]

@penneck 

Something you could try with the .MKV files ...

Download MKV Extract from e.g. https://sourceforge.net/projects/mkvextractgui-2/

Open an MKV file and extract just the audio track.

Although this would reduce the file size for just the audio considerably for an MKV file containing a conventional video track, it might only give a small reduction (if any) if the 'video' consists of just a still image.

Edit:  To make sure the downloaded file from the link is safe, I just grabbed it and checked it on virustotal.com - it's safe!

[#6]

@penneck 

Out of curiosity I downloaded this one, I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again 73-11-11 (802) Jack The Ripper from YouTube using 4K Video Downloader and then extracted the audio track as described above.

The original downloaded file was about 115 MB, the extracted audio file was about 18 MB.  

In this instance the extracted audio file had an extension .aac which plays in both VLC and foobar2000 .

[#7]

Hello @RobPN , I have already downloaded the same file. I don't know the size of it, because I have put it through the process I am using now - convert to MP4 then use @Simon_F 's process to produce, not what I reported in my first reply to Simon which was MP$ without image, but MP3. I've done several files from the same source as 'The Ripper', and they have all ended up in the 12M to 14M range, and they dont show any deterioration from the original soundtrack.

I have had a problem with a few of other ISIRT programs from the same source on YouTube. They wouldn't convert to MP4. They would start then immediately finish and save as an MP4 file with nothing in it. The successful ones would take the best part of half an hour to convert to MP4. I'll try to download them again, and try once more.

Cheers to all

[#8]

@penneck 

Put simply, MKV files are just a container into which various video, audio, subtitle etc. files are placed, see ...

Matroska Multimedia Container

Therefore the soundtrack you will be extracting is not undergoing any conversion processing, and as such, is the original.

It's been many years since I installed MKV Extract so I can't remember the details, but like many programs, if you get an option to incorporate it into your Shell Commands (right-click menu) and accept, then it's simplicity itself to just right-click on the downloaded MKV file and select 'Open with' then 'MKV Extract'.

Extracting just the audio should be very quick.

[#9]

---

@penneck wrote:

About 18 months ago I found some youtube recordings of a radio comedy from my youth, and I downloaded them using 4k Video Downloader. I don't remember if they arrived as MP4s, or whether I had to use Any Video Converter to change them, but they are on my pc in MP4 format and taking up about 35M disk space each. Today I found some more recordings so downloaded them. These turn up in MKV format and each take up over 122M disk space. If I then use Any Video Converter to convert them to MP4 to try to make them smaller, they take up nearly 400M disk space.

Any ideas how I can get them down to about 35M like the older files? The new files are taking up huge amounts of my hard drive.

Thankyou. Take care

---

Google is your friend.... ( How to rip the audio from youtube)

https://www.google.co.uk/search?source=hp&ei=SjAuYM3BPIXBlwTe15NQ&iflsig=AINFCbYAAAAAYC4-W2IVo7ZhKxu...

in short... 

https://uk.pcmag.com/how-to/116879/how-to-convert-youtube-videos-to-mp3-files

Not used it myself...but seems to be simple enough....  !