Choosing a row by its size

The size on each row is the real size

When Analyze finishes, each row shows a resolution and a size in megabytes. That figure is the size of the file that will be written to your device, measured before the transfer starts rather than estimated from the length of the video.

It is worth reading because it is the only number in the results that affects anything outside the picture. Storage, transfer time, and whether a phone accepts the file all follow from it.

Turning megabytes into something you can plan with

A thousand megabytes is a gigabyte, which is the unit your device reports free space in. Converting in your head takes a second and makes the decision obvious.

• A row under 100 MB is a short clip. Storage is not a consideration.
• A row between 100 MB and 500 MB is a normal video of a few minutes at a high resolution.
• A row between 500 MB and 2000 MB is half a gigabyte to two gigabytes. Check your free space before starting it.
• A row above 2000 MB is a long recording. On a phone this is the size of dozens of photos, and on a laptop with a small drive it is a noticeable share of what is left.

Check the space before you press Download file

A transfer that runs out of room does not warn you first. It stops, and the partial file sits on the drive taking up the space it managed to write.

Look at your free space and compare it with the size on the row you want, and leave room beyond the file itself. A device with a few hundred megabytes free behaves badly at every level, so aim to finish the download with a couple of gigabytes still available.

Storage on a phone

A phone is where the size figure matters most, because there is less room and no drive to move things to. Video files also sit alongside your photos in the same storage, so a few large downloads change how much of the camera you have left.

Two habits keep this manageable. Take a smaller row when you are watching on the phone itself, since the size drops sharply for a resolution difference you cannot see at that scale. And move finished files off the phone once you have watched them, rather than letting them collect.

Choosing a row for the connection you are on

Transfer time follows size. Halving the megabytes halves the wait, and on a weak or shared connection that is the difference between a download you finish and one you abandon.

The connection also has to hold for the whole transfer, and the tab has to stay open until the file finishes writing. A smaller row shortens the window in which something can interrupt it.

• On mobile data with an allowance: the size figure is exactly how much of that allowance the download spends.
• On hotel, cafe, or campus networks: take a smaller row, because these connections drop without warning and a transfer does not resume.
• On a shared home connection while other people are watching something: the wait stretches, and a lighter row keeps it short.
• On a stable connection with room to spare: take the row you actually want and let it run.

Sizes and the free limit

Free use has a file size ceiling, so the size figure also tells you whether a row is available to you without paying. Short and medium videos sit under it comfortably, and long recordings at a high resolution are where you meet it.

If the row you selected is over the ceiling, you are told before the transfer begins rather than partway through. From there, take a lower row from the same list, or move to Pro, which raises the limit and removes the advertising.

Related pages

• Where the finished file is stored
• Disk space across a batch of videos
• What the free size ceiling covers
• Picking a resolution to watch on a big screen
• Pages Vidzilla can read