Android Compress Video before Upload to Server

Question

How can I compress a video file in Android before uploading to a remote server? I'm not looking to zip up the file, because I don't think that will help much. I want to compress the video and re-encode it with a lower bit-rate or resolution. The idea is to get a standard 360х480, 30 FPS video file from every device. This way I can avoid users with better cameras being forced to upload huge video files.

I know iOS makes it fairly simple to force video file resolutions. 10 second video recorded on iPhone 4:

high (1280х720) = ~14MB = ~11Mbit/s
640 (640х480) = ~4MB = ~3.2Mbit/s
medium (360х480) = ~1MB = ~820Kbit/s
low (144х192) = ~208KB = ~170Kbit/s

Is there any easy way to do this in Android? Do I need to find some external library that will let me re-encode the video file, then save it to the SD card (or overwrite the old video file), then upload that file? Mainly looking for general direction here and not code to copy and paste, although anything is helpful.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4725773/ffmpeg-on-android may help you — logcat, Jul 03 '12 at 15:39
@Kyle if you find solution then please put your source code please — Hemantvc, May 17 '13 at 05:20

score 8 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 11 '19 at 10:20

8

I got a similar problem. Where I had to upload video in server having size within 5.4mb. But due to different camera resolutions of different phones, there was a problem. These are the solutions which I have opted

mediaRecorder.setProfile(CamcorderProfile.get(CamcorderProfile.QUALITY_HIGH));
mediaRecorder.setVideoEncodingBitRate(690000 );

Hope these will help you

edited Dec 11 '19 at 10:20

ppreetikaa

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answered Jan 03 '14 at 06:36

user1859771

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is that all we have to compress any video ? – Noman Mar 14 '16 at 14:21

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 25 '19 at 13:34

2

One of the app that I worked on earlier has this requirement of sending the video file after compressing it. Here are the steps I followed which worked:

Compress the file using a Silicompressor library in android. Run the compression task on a background thread.
The output file format will have the mime type "video/raw". You can check that in logcat. So, you need to add this mime type in your server so that the compressed file format is uploaded successfully.
After this is done, trying sending the compressed file and it should work.

Make sure the mime type of the file you are uploading to server is accepted by the server.

answered Feb 25 '19 at 13:34

VIVEK CHOUDHARY

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Is Sillicompressor work in java(androi studio) . Because this library is in kotlin and im using Java in android studio. What i do? – John dahat Jun 09 '20 at 09:51
Yes. It works in java android studio. At the time I used it, the lib was in java maybe they have migrated to kotlin now. – VIVEK CHOUDHARY Jun 14 '20 at 09:17
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This library has lots of bugs. – Krutika Chotara Dec 18 '20 at 05:28
FFmpeg is a better option. – VIVEK CHOUDHARY Dec 18 '20 at 07:09

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 27 '20 at 06:39

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Read About this Library, its the best for new mobile which has a Full HD cameras

Compress Video with high quality for Java and Kotlin

answered Aug 27 '20 at 06:39

Osama Ibrahim

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Hey buddy, I tried your library. For my oneplus 7 device, the compressed videos just have audio only – Rishab Jaiswal Jan 10 '22 at 16:25

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 06 '12 at 21:33

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We decided to save this functionality for another iteration of the project. We opted to warn the users of the large data payload (especially if they are not on Wi-Fi). I'm confident this can be done, and the link provided by tabbykitten is the best related SO post I've found on this topic to this date.

answered Aug 06 '12 at 21:33

Kyle Clegg

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Can you please provide that tabbykitten link here? – VVB Sep 08 '17 at 06:40
where is tabbykitten? – sak Jul 14 '20 at 14:03
@sak looks like it got deleted – Kyle Clegg Jul 15 '20 at 15:54
@KyleClegg ok, but the accepted answer is working very well, is there any issue in following it? – sak Jul 16 '20 at 04:03

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Jun 02 '21 at 19:13

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From API level 18 onwards you have direct android API to do Video Encoding but if you are targeting Less than API level 18 it not straight forward

the below link does the encoding https://github.com/google/grafika/blob/master/src/com/android/grafika/VideoEncoderCore.java

edited Jun 02 '21 at 19:13

Ryan M

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answered Sep 07 '16 at 04:33

surya

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Android Compress Video before Upload to Server

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