Date-created:: 2023-11-22

Since the shocking yet understandable finding that I lost both Movavi Video Editor Plus 2020 and Movavi Video Editor 4 as two oft-used video editors after upgrading from an Intel-based MacBook Pro to a MacBook Pro Max M3, one urgent task is to find alternative video editing software. While it takes time to look for a powerhouse program (like Apple's own Final Cut Pro) and evaluate its suitability, I am glad to learn how to downsample a huge raw video using at least three free tools:

自從升級M3筆電發現無法再用Movavi編輯、壓縮影片後，慶幸發現至少三個免費軟體都可實現效果不錯的影片壓縮：

Free alternatives

VLC Video Player

File > Convert/stream. This has the most versatile options. You enter your own numeric values in bit rate, frame rate, width x height, etc.

iMovie

File > share > file > resolution/quality/speed. About 20 combinations.

Quicktime

File > Export As. At least it downsamples its own .mov video format. Options seem limited to five: 4K, 1024p, 720p, 480p, and audio only.

Light editing

Of the three, only iMovie is also a light-weight video editor, allowing for simple editing such as trimming. It has many video/audio effects but I haven't tried any or learned how. One nice thing: it shows audio clipping (when the audio level is high enough to be grating) graphically (but I haven't learned how to fix it).

• Downsampling videos - software comparison (free and paid)