How to Compress a WebM File: The Ultimate Guide

The internet might not have started out as the number one destination for video, but it’s everywhere now. Social media platforms all prioritize video, from YouTube to TikTok and everything between, and websites are packed with videos as companies use it to bring their brands to life. But high quality video files are still large, so how do web developers use video files that can be easily streamed on mobile? That’s where WebM files come in handy.

What is a WebM file?

A WebM file is a multimedia video file designed to be used with HTML5 and supported by the most popular web browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. WebM files when loaded onto websites are designed to play seamlessly on the web, such as in the background of a company’s homepage. But working with high quality videos can quickly slow down the speed of a website, and even though WebM files are smaller and more compressed than MOV files for example, if the video is quite long it can still take up a lot of room which eats into website storage space. Compressing or converting a WebM file reduces the size, letting you load it onto the web more easily.

The benefits of compressing a WebM file

Compressing any file is all about reducing the file size as much as possible while retaining the quality of the original file. Compressing a WebM file creates a smaller output which can be more easily transferred, uploaded and hosted on the web. A smaller WebM file will make the video on a website load and stream faster both on desktop and mobile, which in turn helps increase an audience’s time spent on the page engaging with the brand. The balance is to convert it into a file type in a way that makes the size smaller, but doesn’t negatively impact the quality of the video, and using high quality video editing software like Pinnacle Studio is the best way to retain quality when you convert a WebM.

How to convert a WebM file

  1. To start with, open up Pinnacle Studio.
  2. Import your WebM file into Pinnacle Studio by selecting the file in the Import screen.
  3. Drag the video onto the timeline in the video layer.
  4. Navigate to the Export screen.
  5. Select your desired output such as 3GP from the Extension tab.
  6. Next to Preset you should be presented with a drop-down menu. Here, Pinnacle Studio provides you with a list of premade settings that you can choose from. Explore the options and choose the one that works the best for you.
  7. If you want to create your own custom settings, hit the Edit icon and adjust the settings accordingly. Reducing the size and the bitrate will reduce the size of the file.
  8. Select the destination of where you want your new file to end up.
  9. Finally, simply hit Start Export to begin compressing the file.

Compress or convert a WebM file to reduce its size

If you want to run videos on your website, WebM files are a powerful container to hold high quality video and audio that can be easily streamed online. But the larger the size of a WebM the slower a website will load which affects the user experience and the time an audience will spend on the site. That can be improved by using Pinnacle Studio to compress the WebM file into a much smaller file but still retaining the quality of the original file. A website that loads videos quickly will give the audience a much better experience, keeping them engaged for longer.

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