How do I email a video file that is too large?

Digital video files are easy to capture with camcorders, cell phones and other portable devices, but the file sizes of the videos you record are often too large to send by email. Even if your Internet connection has plenty of bandwidth, sending a 2-minute long movie in MP4 format by e-mail could take up to several minutes -- not exactly something you want to happen during your important presentation!

If you're trying to send video files over email for presentations or to clients, the solution may be simple compression. With this article's step-by-step instructions on how to compress videos into smaller size before uploading them online, you'll have no trouble finding out everything there is about compressing digital media. This will make sure your content reaches its intended audience at just the right moment.

So let's get started!

First off, we need to know what kind of file formats work best for emailing. There are many different kinds of video file formats: AVI, MOV, MPG, MPEG, DIVX, ASF, XVID, VC1...the list goes on and on. But which one should you use?

The most popular type of video file format used today is probably the MPEG (Motion Pictures Expert Group) standard. It was developed by IBM back in 1988 as part of their multimedia initiative, and it quickly became the industry standard because it offers high quality while remaining small enough to fit within the constraints of the internet. The main advantage of using MPEG files is that they play well across all platforms without having to worry about codecs, and people who receive these types of movies don't even have to install any special software to watch them.

MPEG works great for both personal viewing and professional applications like webinars, training seminars and sales pitches. Here's how to convert any video file from any source into an easily viewable form so you can upload it to YouTube, Vimeo or another hosting site.

How can I email a large video file free?

There are lots of ways to reduce the size of a video file, some better than others. In order to choose which method would work best for you, first decide whether you only need to resize the original image or if you also require converting audio tracks. Some methods allow resizing images or audio tracks separately, while others combine those tracks together. For example, one way to shrink down a video is to simply crop each frame individually until you end up with a much shorter version. That's called "frame dropping," and it tends to produce good results.

But if you plan on adding effects such as filters, transitions, animations or text layers, then you might find yourself dealing with a lot more data. You'd typically go through each individual track and apply effects to it, resulting in multiple copies of the same material distributed among dozens of separate clips. To avoid that headache, try using an application such as Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 Advanced Effects & Audio Mixer ($299), DaVinci Resolve ($199) or Avid Media Composer ($499). These tools support batch processing, meaning you can add effects to hundreds of frames simultaneously instead of doing it manually. Additionally, most of these programs offer non-destructive editing capabilities, allowing you to experiment with new edits after applying effects.

If you're looking to create slideshows or screencasts, consider using Apple iMovie '09 ($99) or ScreenFlow 4 ($399), two very powerful tools capable of handling any project you throw at them. They do come with built-in options for trimming footage, however.

Lastly, if you really wanted to save space, why not look into transcoding your own videos into the smallest possible versions? After all, you already shot the film, edited it, finished sound mixing and mastered it - now all you have left to do is wait for someone else to see it. However, keep in mind that unless you've got a top-of-the-line computer system, it might take quite awhile to transcode a full-length feature in real time. Also, you must ensure that whatever tool you pick is compatible with your operating system.

Once you've decided on your preferred conversion process, here comes the hard part: actually shrinking down the file itself. Most common approaches include either downsampling or encoding. Downsampling involves taking a higher resolution picture and dividing it into sections, creating lower resolution pictures. While this approach may seem counterintuitive due to the fact that you took the original recording in HD, it does result in considerably less output data since there were fewer pixels to begin with. Unfortunately, that means you lose some details along the edges. On the bright side, downsampled files tend to run faster and consume far less memory space.

Encoding takes a lower resolution piece of video and converts it into another format. Encoding usually produces bigger files, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they won't stream smoothly over VoIP (Voice Over IP) services or on slow networks. One downside to encoding is that it requires additional CPU power. So if speed and portability are more important to you than squeezing every last bit of storage capacity out of your videos, then encoding might be the way to go. Another option is to use lossy compression techniques, in which you sacrifice detail rather than overall size. Lossless compression, on the other hand, keeps all available information intact. Although it's slower, it provides superior quality compared to lossy compression, especially if you're working with complicated graphics scenes. Finally, if you really want to squeeze every last drop out of your videos, you can always opt for multi-pass encoding. Multi-pass encoding essentially applies each effect to the entire clip twice, once with minimal changes, followed by a second pass where you fine tune things further. Once again, this technique yields excellent quality while keeping the final product relatively tiny.

Of course, these aren't the only ways to compress videos. Other methods involve removing parts entirely and combining clips together. But chances are that whichever program you select will do a decent job of making your videos easier to share. Now it's time to figure out how big your target file needs to become.

How do you email a video when it is too large?

Before you start your journey towards reducing the size of your video, you need to determine how you intend to deliver it to whoever will view it. Will it live on a website or be sent via eMail? How fast is your network connection? What sort of device are viewers likely to use? All of these questions impact how much effort you need to put into compressing your video.

For instance, if you plan on delivering it directly onto a webpage, the average user will download it in around five seconds. And if you're providing access to it via mobile phone, most smartphone users nowadays connect wirelessly via 3G, EDGE or WiMAX, which generally maxes out at 100KB/second. Download speeds vary depending upon location, service provider and the amount of activity going on in your area. Regardless, getting anything remotely close to 10 megabytes per second isn't realistic.

So what happens if you want to mail it or otherwise provide access to it outside of your home country? Well, you can still compress it for international delivery by breaking it up into segments of no more than 1 minute 30 seconds apiece. Then, you can either encode each segment separately or bundle them together into a single container. If you chose to group them together, you can split them up into chunks based on language codes. For example, English subtitles can reside in their own section, while French captions can go under Spanish ones.

How can I email a video larger than 25MB?

As previously mentioned, if you're planning on sharing your video over the Internet, you're bound by the limitations imposed by the fastest residential broadband connections. Anything above roughly 5 MB per second gets slowed down significantly, sometimes to the point where it becomes unusably choppy. As such, you may need to break your video up into pieces no longer than 20 minutes long, preferably between three to four minutes apiece. Of course, if you're shooting raw footage, you may not be able to edit it down below 20 minutes anyway. So you'll need to either shoot in HD (which costs money) or accept the possibility of cutting corners somewhere to get the video down to size.

One thing to note is that if you're sending a chunkier video to somebody overseas, remember to turn off AutoPlay. Otherwise, your recipient will automatically attempt to open the file whenever he opens his mailbox, potentially wasting precious time.

Digital video files are easy to capture with camcorders, cell phones and other portable devices, but the file sizes of the videos you record are often too large to send via email. Even if your recipient has a high-speed Internet connection at their office, they may not have one when opening emails on the go -- especially during peak business hours.

If you need to send a video over email as part of a presentation, sales pitch or even just because it's important enough to get out there, here's what you'll want to know about compressing video into an email attachment.

First off, let's take care of some common questions about sending big attachments in general. You might be wondering how long it takes to receive such a large message, whether people will actually open it (and view its contents), and how much time it really saves to compress a file before uploading it online. Here's what we found...

How can I send a video over 25MB through email?

You could upload the entire clip to YouTube or another hosting site and link back to it from within your email. But since most email programs don't support streaming video, this isn't always practical. Also, remember that many services like Dropbox impose limits on file size based on storage space available. The more compressed a video becomes, the smaller its overall dimensions become. This means you won't necessarily save any significant amount of bandwidth.

So what should you do instead? Try using a service called Vimeo Converter for Mac OS X which allows users to convert uploaded clips directly into.mp4 format, then download them and watch them offline later. It also lets you set start times, end points, titles, subtitles and descriptions for each individual clip. There are plenty of options for Windows users as well.

When preparing to attach a converted video to an email, make sure to check its resolution first. Some sites will automatically adjust everything else according to the settings you've selected. For example, if you choose 1080p HD quality, the resulting file won't look very good unless it was originally shot in that same frame rate. On the flip side, however, setting things up correctly doesn't mean you lose quality either. In fact, converting higher resolutions to lower ones generally results in smoother playback than downsizing low-resolution original footage at all.

How do I email a large video file?

The main thing you need to remember about sending huge video files over email is that they must remain under 2GB in order to avoid getting blocked by mail servers. That said, you shouldn't expect anything less than 30 minutes per viewing once you've downloaded it onto your computer -- regardless of compression methods used.

As far as actual speed goes, consider the following factors:

File type matters. When dealing with MP3s, GIFs and JPEG images, the best way to reduce image quality without sacrificing picture detail is to use lossy compression techniques. With larger video formats though, reducing quality can result in unsightly artifacts and blurry edges. And unlike audio tracks, video is usually encoded multiple times anyway. So while still better than nothing, these kinds of tricks aren't going to cut it anymore.

Video codec matters. A lot! Every popular video player uses different algorithms to optimize data transfer speeds, so certain types of encoding simply work faster than others. To find out which kind suits your needs best, try testing a few file conversions yourself. Just keep in mind that every bit counts, so never sacrifice quality to shave seconds off the total process.

Other variables include resolution, color depth and framerate. We recommend sticking to standard 640x480 24fps frames whenever possible. As a rule of thumb, no matter what you see elsewhere, 720p is always preferable to 480p. And where possible, opt for full RGB rather than YUV colorspace (which only supports 8 bits per channel). These two elements alone can account for hundreds of kilobytes worth of savings.

Finally, note that newer versions of Adobe Flash Player allow us to stream live content straight from our computers, so you can bypass the whole "download" step altogether. Check out our guide to sending web videos via email for details.

How do I email a video that exceeds the limit?

If you plan ahead, you can easily circumvent limitations imposed by providers like Gmail. First, resize your video down until it fits comfortably inside a single MP4 container. Then, upload the modified version to whatever host you prefer. Next, create a new text document containing links to both the unmodified original and the resized copy, along with instructions detailing how to access them. Finally, compose an outgoing email pointing recipients toward this special folder and instructing them to delete those extra copies after watching.

Now, what happens if you forget to modify your source footage beforehand? Or maybe you're short on disk space right now? Don't worry. Most modern operating systems come equipped with built-in tools designed specifically to help you manage oversized downloads. One useful feature is queuing up incoming transfers so you can prioritize between folders. Simply drag-and-drop the largest item(s) into separate tabs and wait patiently for them to finish downloading. Afterward, you can move them around as needed.

For instance, say you accidentally sent the wrong version to someone last week. Instead of having to fiddle with FTP and reupload everything manually, you could just queue up the old file and replace it with the correct one immediately.

How can I email a video that is too large for free?

There are several ways to accomplish this task, depending on your budget. Generally speaking, paid accounts offer unlimited space and/or speed boosts. However, if you'd rather not spend money on something that probably won't affect your bottom line too dramatically, feel free to skip this section entirely.

Here are three solutions that require minimal investment:

Use Google Drive. Not only does this cloud solution cost absolutely zero dollars, it's already integrated into millions of existing PCs worldwide. Upload your file to Google Drive, select it, click the downward arrow next to Actions and hit Download ZIP. Once the process completes, extract the archive anywhere you please.

Run it through Media Encoder Lite. Another great option that works equally well on Mac OS X and PC platforms alike is this cross-platform software that offers basic editing features, plus advanced controls including LZMA, MPEG2 and H264 encoders, AAC decoder and 4:3 aspect ratio optimization. From $49.95.

Try Plex. Although typically thought of strictly as a media server platform, Plex recently introduced a desktop app that makes it easier than ever to sync locally stored movies with friends who own compatible smartphones. What's more, you can instantly share newly added material with anyone who subscribes to your feed. Free trials are available for both iOS and Android users.

Do you think you'll be making more use of large video files moving forward? Have you tried any of these tips yet? Share your thoughts below!

Digital video files are easy to capture with camcorders, cell phones and other portable devices, but the file sizes of the videos you record are often too large to send by email. You may be asked to attach a small clip in an e-mail message as proof of your work. Or perhaps you want to share some footage from a recent event with colleagues across time zones. In either case, sending a huge video file is not always practical using standard methods like uploading it to YouTube first. There's no need to waste bandwidth on upload when there is a perfectly acceptable alternative—sending via email! Here we'll take a look at how you can send a large video file through email for free without compromising quality. We will also discuss ways to compress big video files so they don't get rejected due to size limitations.

The following steps have been tested on Windows 7 Pro x64 running Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Edition 64 bit (which uses.avi format). They should work pretty much the same way with any operating system.

First things first... what exactly is a digital video file anyway? A digital video file consists of multiple images called "frames" which make up one continuous moving image. The frames are displayed rapidly enough to create motion, such as people walking or cars driving. Each frame has its own unique characteristics such as color depth, resolution, compression type and codec used. Although most digital cameras store their photos in JPEG format, many still use uncompressed raw data.

To play back these types of files, you must have software capable of playing them. Most computers come equipped with built-in media players that include DVD drives, CD/ROM drives, etc., all of which support playback of video formats. To see if yours does, check out this list of common computer video formats. Some desktop computers ship with QuickTime preinstalled while others require additional installation of third party programs. On Mac systems, Apple provides Quicktime with every new Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard update. For more information about installing QuickTime on Windows, please refer to our previous article How to Play Videos With VLC Media Player.

Here are the two main solutions we've found that allow us to easily mail large video attachments directly within Word documents.

How can I send a large video file through email for free?

There are several options available depending upon whether you are using Gmail or Hotmail. Regardless of service provider, however, you can achieve similar results using the same general method.

1) Use Windows Live Mail's integrated tool to convert video into another supported format.

2) Create a compressed version of the original video prior to attaching it to your document. This process requires Adobe Premiere Elements 8. So download the program here [Broken URL Removed] and follow the instructions below.

3) Record yourself describing the details of the project. It doesn't matter whether you sound good since your goal is simply to convey the content of the video. Once finished, export the recording to MPEG4 format. That said, you could just read off the script instead. Just speak naturally, pause frequently and keep track of where you left off. When you reach the end of a sentence, stop talking until you hear the next audio cue.

4) Open your WLMAIL account. Click Tools & Account Settings then click Manage My Accounts. From there go to the tab labeled Other. Then select File Attachments. Under the Files section find the heading Large Attachments. Select Advanced Options. Choose your preferred option under Conversion Type and choose Next.

5) Your browser window should now display the conversion wizard. At this point you can decide between converting to H.264 MP4, WebM, Flash (.flv), or DivX 5 (.dvd). After choosing your output settings, click Finish.

6) Now open Notepad (or any text editor of your choice) and paste the following code inside it:

<OBJECT TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" ID=".FlashMovie"" CODEBASE="http://www.adobe.com/svg/viewer/" SRC="your_videofilepath_here" width="640px" height="480px" classid="clsid:D27CD11C-AEF0-48A8-9AC7-940ABEFCDC8B" />

Now save the resulting SWF file anywhere you'd like. Don't forget to replace "your_videofilepath_here" with the actual path to the source video. Finally, right click on the newly created flash movie file and select Properties. Inside General Attributes, change the Movie Quality setting to High. Set the Embed Size to 640pixels wide by 480 pixels high. Save changes.

Go ahead and try opening the converted file in Firefox, Chrome or IE 9. Did everything work correctly? Great! Now let's move onto step 2.

Note: For those who prefer editing videos outside of the Adobe suite, iShowU HD Converter offers an intuitive drag-and-drop interface to perform conversions. Additionally, the software allows users to customize the final product before saving it to disk. Another popular solution is Avidemux, which is widely known for being able to edit live streaming footage. But both of these tools lack certain features necessary to properly handle large video clips.

How can I send a video file that is too large?

If you haven't already discovered, it is possible to shrink down video files so that they fit comfortably within most email services' attachment limits. However, doing so comes at the cost of quality. Therefore, we recommend exporting only the key parts of the video you intend to show rather than attempting to squeeze the whole thing into one single file.

One great example would be any sort of tutorial video. Rather than attempt to pack each frame into a single file, break it into segments based on action. For instance, if you were creating a simple instructional guide, consider breaking the video into sections for different tasks performed during the procedure. Instead of showing the entire sequence all together, divide it into smaller chunks along the timeline.

As an added bonus, having multiple shorter video files makes downloading easier. And even though you won't have the full feature set of the original file, it shouldn't compromise your overall viewing experience significantly. Plus, after downloading each individual segment, you can view them individually without worry.

For our second example, imagine you had recorded a long conference call featuring nine participants speaking simultaneously. Rather than combining everyone's voices together, separate the audio tracks into smaller clips so that each person speaks for only a few seconds. By taking advantage of compression technology, you can reduce the length of each voice segment significantly while maintaining excellent clarity. As a result, you can later combine the short snippets to form larger blocks of audio.

Once again, we encourage you to avoid making the mistake of compressing the whole video into one file. Doing so will cause unnecessary loss of detail.

What is the best way to email a large video file?

We know that not everybody can afford to subscribe to premium accounts offered by top providers like AOL and Yahoo. Fortunately, there's a workaround that allows you to access various online storage sites without paying extra money. Simply sign up for an account with Boxee, Google Drive or Dropbox. Upload the video file(s) to your account, and email it as usual. All three companies provide free space to start with, and you can upgrade whenever you wish.

Another interesting fact is that because these services rely heavily on peer-to-peer connections, your connection speed becomes less important. The faster you download the file, the better it sounds. Also, unless you plan on sharing the link publicly, privacy concerns aren't really a concern. Lastly, unlike traditional cloud computing applications, these services work locally on your hard drive. They are secure and accessible from any device connected to the Internet.

How can I email a video that is bigger than 25 MB?

In addition to the above rules, you might encounter situations where you need to transfer very large video files that exceed 25MB or 100 minutes. Unfortunately, most email servers currently limit the maximum attachment size to around 3GB. Unless you pay for upgraded hosting plans, you won't have an option to increase your attachment limit beyond that amount.

Luckily, there are plenty of tricks you can employ to decrease the size of a video without sacrificing quality. One effective technique is to apply dithering effects to smooth out noise patterns, thus reducing the overall file size slightly. Dithering works well with dark scenes, especially night shots with lots of shadows. To enable dither, head to Edit & Effects & Noise Reduction and tick Enable Noise Reducing Filter.

You can further improve the visual appearance of the video by tweaking levels in Photoshop. Adjusting sharpness, contrast and saturation can help boost the perceived brightness of darker areas. Again, head to Image & Adjustment Layers & Levels. Tweak the sliders manually until you arrive at something pleasing.