What To Do When Your Video Is Too Big

How to adjust your file's size, and understanding the tradeoffs of doing so.

Jay Douglas avatar
Written by Jay Douglas
Updated over a week ago

My Video Is Too Big!

B12 video files are currently limited to a maximum file size of 25MB. If your video is currently too large, consider these steps to reduce its size:

Upload Your Video To YouTube

By uploading your video to YouTube rather than the B12 Editor, you'll be able to embed videos of nearly unlimited size onto your B12 site using YouTube's video player. Because of their video-focused infrastructure, videos hosted by them will load faster as well.

To learn more about how to embed YouTube videos into your B12 site, please click here.

If you plan to use your video as a section background, please keep in mind that this isn't currently possible using YouTube. The items below detail your options when uploading a video background.

Reduce the Video Length
The easiest way to reduce your video's file size is to reduce its total duration. We suggest making this change using a quick and easy online tool like Online Video Cutter, though any video editing software will do.

Lower Your Resolution and Framerate

Lowering your video's resolution will decrease the image quality of your video overall - if you're using the video for a background, this might not be extremely noticeable, as customers likely be focused on your site's foreground elements. Many website visitors are visiting websites on small screens and low-resolution devices anyway, so they might not even be able to tell the difference between different resolutions.

Generally, we would suggest trying to save the video as a 1080p (1920x1080) video, and seeing if the file can be uploaded. If not, reducing your video's resolution to 900p (1600x900) should decrease the file size further. If you need the file smaller still, you can reduce the resolution further to 720p (1280x720).

If you still run into issues with file size, reducing your video's framerate could also assist with file size. Try setting your framerate to 30 if it isn't set that way already. If it is, try lowering the framerate to 24 instead.

Change Your Compression Type

Changing your compression type is a useful last-ditch if the above options fail. It's the most complicated of the three options and will likely present the smallest reduction in file size, but it can be a useful option if you're right on the edge of the 25MB file size.

One of the easiest ways to compress your videos is to use an online compressor like FreeConvert. If you're familiar with more advanced video editors like Adobe Premiere, these softwares will also have options for changing your compression and encoding options.

I Still Need Help!
If you still need assistance, then it may be worth reaching out to a member of the support team to see if they can provide you with some additional suggestions.

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