The presence of video streaming services such as Netflix, ShowMax and Amazon Prime Video simply spells the need for mobility in entertainment needs. Why run home to enjoy your favourite TV series or movie via probably your DVD player yet you own a smartphone?
Monthly subscription to the three video streaming services might prove to be quite a challenge to most individuals. Don’t even mention the fact that you will also need an internet subscription in order to make any meaningful use of your monthly subscription to any of these streaming services. Better yet, you can make use of the snail pace free Wi-Fi access available in most entertainment joints. In short, internet connection is still relatively expensive.
Most individuals will still continue to enjoy their favourite TV titles via physical copies of CDs or DVDs. To enjoy this content over your lunch break you can opt to copy the title to your smartphone. The downside of doing so is that it ends up occupying a big chunk of your storage space, approximately 4 GB. As a result, you cannot carry a much bigger collection of your favourite titles over lunch.
Thanks to VLC media player, you can compress your video file to an average of 200 MB or even lower. Yeap! VLC does a whole lot of things, including streaming content from sites such as YouTube. Compressing your video files will save you the much needed storage space.
How to Compress your Video File
- Launch your VLC media player application
- Click on the Media menu
- Click on the Convert/Save option
- For the tech savvy, using the shortcut Ctrl + R will take you to the Convert/Save window directly.
- If the video file is stored on your PC/laptop, choose the File tab then click on the Add button to choose it. If you are using a Disc make sure it is inserted then choose the Disc tab and make sure the correct Disk device is selected.
- Next click on the Convert/Save button located on the bottom right corner.
- Next click on the Browse button to choose the destination folder and to promptly name your new video file.
- Then comes the interesting bit. Clicking on the drop down menu option next to the Profile label will display different video formats. Since the intention is to copy the video file to a mobile device, scroll down and choose any of the video for iPod or video for Android For each you will be granted options for SD low, SD high and HD. Choose your preferred option.
- When you are done click on the Start
- Wait patiently for the compression to take place.
