Choosing an output format
MP4 (H.264/AAC) is the default interchange format: players everywhere understand it, and it balances size with quality. WebM shines for web delivery when you control a modern browser stack. GIF remains useful for short UI demos even though file sizes balloon quickly.
Match your container to the platform: social networks often re-encode uploads, so giving them a clean, well-lit master reduces generation loss.
Quality, bitrate, and file size
Video is a trade-off between visual fidelity and megabytes. High motion scenes need more bits than talking-head footage. If you see blockiness, raise quality before resolution—doubling pixels without bits rarely helps.
Long screen recordings compress well because large areas stay flat; concert footage does not.
Why local conversion matters
Raw camera files can reveal location metadata and private conversations. Converting in-browser means those bits do not traverse our infrastructure. Clear browser cache after sensitive clips on shared machines.
Hardware limits
Transcoding is CPU- and memory-intensive. Close other heavy tabs, plug in power on laptops, and expect longer runs for 4K sources. If a job fails, try a shorter clip to confirm the pipeline, then scale up.