How to Convert a Video File into MP4 (for free!)

If you have a lot of videos that you want to have transcribed, it can be an idea to compress them into smaller files in order to upload them to your chosen video transcription service. If your videos are especially large (it’s not rare to have videos that are a couple of Gigabytes or more), they may take several hours to upload to your chosen transcription service if they are not compressed. And that’s if they can even accept really large files. In many cases you will end up having to post hard copies of your videos via snail mail, which not only impacts on your turnaround time, but also means a higher admin cost due to the time it takes your chosen service to convert and upload your video themselves. You could try uploading your videos to YouTube, but if they are confidential and sensitive this may not be a viable option.
One solution is to convert your video file into an mp4 format. This can be done quickly and easily and best of all, the software you will need is free! It’s called Handbrake and in this post I’m going to show you how to use it.
First, here’s the video:

Instructions:
Search for, download and install a copy of Handbrake from handbrake.fr. Save the where it is easy for you to find (like the desktop). Then open it up!
On the main screen, select ‘Source’ under the ‘File’ toolbar. From here, select ‘Video file’ and then open the video file that you would like to compress.
Once you have selected the video that want to compress, go to ‘Destination’, then ‘File’ and select where you want to save your video (i.e. on the desktop or a designated folder).
Then on the ‘Output Settings’ under ‘Container’, check that ‘mp4′ is selected.
Next, simply select ‘Start’ and wait for your video to convert. This could take a few minutes, depending on the length and size of your video file.
Once your video has been converted into an mp4 format, you can quickly and easily upload it for transcription. Alternatively you can store it on your computer more conveniently without it using up a ton of memory on your hard drive.
If you would like more information about video transcription, or would just like to know a little bit more about some of the other services that we provide, please feel free to contact us via email, instant message or telephone at any time.

[authorsure_authors]