What is the best way to m4v files even further?

I have a ton of files I need transcribed, and I'm sharing them with our transcriber via Dropbox. Right now, the files are m4v files. I want to shrink them further. I try using MPEGstreamclip but too often the file size gets even larger! The quality of the video isnt a big issue since it's people transcribing audio. I looked into making them AVI files, but even then, I'm not sure what file type to make them. Once you choose AVI, MPEG asks you to then pick a type of compression codec and there are a million options.

So...suggested settings vis Hanbrake or MPEGStreamclip for shrinking these small files even further?

oxband said:

I want to shrink them further. I try using MPEGstreamclip but too often the file size gets even larger! The quality of the video isnt a big issue since it's people transcribing audio.

Click to expand...

Do you mean that you only need the audio form the video clip? If so, MPEG Streamclip can handle that. Load the video and then choose Export Audio from the File menu. This will leave only the audio behind which can be saved in a variety of formats -- most of which are much smaller than the video file. MP3s for example will be much smaller but should still have sufficient quality for transcription. If not even uncompressed air or wav feels are only about 600 MB per hour.

Quicktime will also Export the audio only.

I forgot about QuickTime for that. It can be a bit cumbersome if editing is needed but works fine otherwise.

Thing is, I need the video clip since I'm burning the time code into the videos. Any ideas given that scenario?

MP4/M4V is already a highly-compressed codec, really the only way you can make the videos smaller than that is to dramatically lower the resolution. Try saving them as MPEG-1 (VCD) quality files at 320x240 for a stroll back down VHS memory lane.