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How to compress QuickTime video files

Edited by Ben Jacklin

November 6, 2024

14,556

Almost everyone who has ever tried to use an Apple device is familiar with the QuickTime file format. It was introduced in 1991 and has two main extensions: .qt and .mov. On a Mac, you can play back these files with the QuickTime Player.

What is a QuickTime file?

The QuickTime media container is a wrapper for video, audio, and text data, which are stored in different tracks. Each of these tracks represents a specific data stream or a reference to another stream. The QuickTime format is primarily used to store videos with soundtracks and subtitles.

If you are a big cinephile, you might find you don’t have enough file storage to house all of your movies or series. But there’s no need to delete them: instead, compress the QuickTime videos with appropriate file reduction software.

Here are some situations in which you might need to make your video files smaller.

Videos take up too much space

If you have too many movies or home videos on your computer, get some additional space. Compress QuickTime files, and they will require less space, so you’ll be able to keep more of them for your distance working.

Videos upload too slowly

Large files take too much time to upload to the Internet. Compress them for sending as email attachments or for a website and you’ll see that the upload process is much faster. The recipients of your files will also enjoy the faster download speed.

It costs too much to store videos in the cloud

If you are a big user of cloud services, you may discover that it gets expensive when you want to store large files in the cloud because of high taxes. Compress your videos and you’ll pay less for the same number of files.

Movavi Video Converter is a great program for file compression, with many adjustable options. You can make your files smaller with ready-made presets or even define file size manually. You can even change the format of your files from QuickTime to something else, e.g., MP4, if you want to watch your videos on different devices.

With the Movavi software, you can reduce the size of your file even further. Below, you’ll find a guide to how to compress a QuickTime video in just a few easy steps.

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Step 1. Download the Movavi Compressor

Follow the appropriate link from this page and download the program for your OS. Double-click the file and follow the onscreen instructions to install it. Launch the app.

Step 2. Add your QuickTime videos

Select all videos you want to process and drag them to the program window. Alternatively, you can click the Add Media button and then choose Add Video. Select the files and hit Open.

Step 3. Specify the resulting format and resolution

Open the Video tab and find a preset group that meets your needs. Choose MOV if you don’t want to change the format of your files, or something else (e.g., MP4) if you do. Specify the preset with the desired codec and resolution: if you lower the resolution, the resulting file size will be lower, too.

Step 4. Adjust the additional options

For greater compression, click on the output size next to one of your files in the main program window. In the window that appears, move the File size slider to the left to change the size of your video. Click Convert sample to see a preview of the video compression. If all is well, mark the Apply bitrate to all files check box to reduce the size of all your videos by the same factor. You can also change file sizes individually.

Step 5. Finally, compress the QuickTime files

Specify the folder where your output files will be stored by clicking the Folder button. Hit Convert to launch the compression process and wait while the new file folder opens.

Here are some examples of compressing files with the Movavi compressor: these videos were converted to MP4 and their bitrate was lowered.

Video

Before compression

After compression

Movie

6.5 GB

3.5 GB

Clip

250 MB

130 MB

Short phone video

24 MB

15 MB

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