Important Tips to Remember When Converting Social Media Video Formats
If you are publishing videos on different social media platforms and possibly elsewhere too, you will find that you need to convert the format that your videos are encoded in. Each platform generally supports a different range of formats, and some have fairly strict requirements.
While converting social media video formats is normally easy enough if you have a video converter, there are a few important tips that you should remember:
Avoid Converting the Same Video File Repeatedly
If you convert the same video file repeatedly its quality could deteriorate over time. That is because every time the video is converted to a different codec, its data is recompressed and some of it will be discarded.
Normally the data that is discarded won’t have a noticeable impact on your video. However, if more and more data is discarded over the course of multiple conversions – it will start to show.
The solution is simple however: Instead of converting the same video file repeatedly, you should go back to the original social media video and convert from it every time.
Keep the Original Video File Safe
Considering you’re going to be using the original video to convert copies of your social media video, it is important that you keep it safe. Ideally you should not only store it, but back it up using the 3-2-1 rule if possible.
It is always a good practice to keep the original video file safe as it will have the best video quality. Any other versions will either be compressed or altered in ways that can affect the video quality, so having the original as a ‘master copy’ can come in handy.
Remember to Adjust the Video Bitrate As Required
When you convert your video between different codecs you need to remember that the bitrate that is required may differ as well. For example, HEVC videos require about half the bitrate of H.264 videos.
If the video bitrate isn’t adjusted, it could end up being higher than it needs to be – which will inflate the video file size unnecessarily. However more importantly if it is lower than it should be you will see compression artifacts start to appear in your social media videos.
Just remember that the video bitrate shouldn’t be based on the codec alone, and the resolution and frame rate of the video will play a part as well.
Regardless of whether you convert AVI to MP4, WMV to MKV, or FLV to MOV – the tips listed above will apply. It shouldn’t be too difficult to take advantage of them using any video converter, and for example you can try Movavi Video Converter if need be.
Think of these tips as a set of best practices that you can follow when you convert your social media videos between the formats that you require. In the long term they’ll help you to preserve the quality of your videos and ensure that you always have a fall back option if you need one.
