One of the key features of Combat Academy is the ability to record and share video from your training sessions or competitions and to include this in your digital training journal. Most current smartphones and action cameras can record excellent video at a high resolution. That’s great in general but means that you can end up with some very large video files that can take a long time to upload and has resolutions far above what is necessary when viewing on a desktop computer or mobile device.
Thus, we recommend that you compress your video files before uploading to Combat Academy (or sharing on social media for that matter). Most mobile devices come with a basic system app for video editing and compression, but if you want to try some other options, we have compiled a list of some alternatives in this post. Several of these apps also allow you to trim, cut and splice your video to make it more engaging (and remove that footage of your feet or the ceiling).
As we mentioned in a previous blog post, when compressing your video try not to go above a resolution of 1080p. A resolution of 720p is a great balance between quality and size. We can handle most common video file formats, including MP4, MOV, AVI and WMV.
Looking for tips on how to mount your phone during training? We wrote about that here.
Desktop Apps
- Wondershare UniConverter
- URL: https://videoconverter.wondershare.com/compress/how-to-compress-a-video.html
- Free to download – available on Windows and Mac
- Simple to use for any level of computer and video expertise
- Freemake Video Converter
- URL: https://www.freemake.com/free_video_converter/
- Free to download and use – available on windows only
- Simple to use and has a robust set of tools for various file conversion and compression options
- Avidemux
- URL: https://avidemux.en.softonic.com/
- Free to download for both Windows and Mac and Linux Systems
- Powerful and Free to use – considered one of the best compression tools for Free
- Miro Video Converter
- URL: http://www.mirovideoconverter.com/
- Free to use and download – available on Windows, Mac and Linux systems
- Easy drag and drop interface for simple compression
Android Apps
- Video Compressor – Fast Compress Video & Photo
- URL: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.idea.videocompress
- Free to download with ads
- Decent compression when using the manual compression feature available on free version
- VidCompact
- URL: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xvideostudio.videocompress
- Free to Download – Be sure to not accept the trial offer if you want to use the free ad-implemented version
- Easy to use compression which shows clearly the different compression percentage you get with various output options
- Video Compressor Panda
- URL: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pandavideocompressor
- Free to download and has an easy to use free version that is ad implemented
- Allows you to preselect different compression options and has a comparison feature to compare your compressed file to the original one
iOS Apps
- Video Compress – Shrink VIDS
- URL: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/video-compress-shrink-vids/id997699744
- Free to download and use with ad implemented version
- Files don’t appear to be compressed but when you send them or upload them to a new source you will see it is smaller than the original file
- Video Compressor – Reduce Size
- URL: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/video-compressor-reduce-size/id1135183644
- Free to download with ad implemented version
- Video Compressor – Shrink Videos
- URL: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/video-compressor-shrink-videos/id1133417726
- Free to download and use with ad implementation
- Simple and relatively straightforward interface, just a heads up it auto-sorts your files by file size, tap the sort icon on the top right corner of the screen to change to “sort by date”
We hope you found these suggestions useful. Do you have any good video content from a training session or competition? If so, we would love for you to share it on Combat Academy by adding an activity or post. Content with video attached ranks higher in the featured feed and we will be sure to look out for it.
Not on the Combat Academy platform yet? Check out the app, or learn more on our website, blog, and support pages. The app is completely FREE and you can sign up to the web app using the link at the top of this page or get the mobile app by pressing the button above.
Have any other app recommendations or tips for working with video? Please let us know in the comments or at support@combat.academy.