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[paul-f]

Hmmm, I don't think I know how to put an iPhone video into a zip file.  Also, my desktop computer is currently unavailable, so I can't transfer the video there to zip it.  Any suggestions?

DF

Edit:  Does anybody know of a decent FREE App Store program to try?

I'll defer to iPhone power users for specifics.

if you have cloud storage, will it automatically zip files for download? Several platforms used by groups I belong to automatically zip downloads containing more than one file.

[edit to add...]

Or you could try an internet search for something like "how to zip files on iphone"

The first two I got were:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/102532
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMX1xGAkVSc

[TelePlay]

The way most do it (other than creating the video as a MOV, Avi, Wmv, MP4 or other common video format and attaching it as a zip file which also must be under 3 MBytes) is to put it on YouTube and post a link to the YouTube video.

Given the usual large size of video files, the YouTube option is best.

From the forum attachment function, the "upload" option allows one to take and upload a photo or video directly from an iPhone.

The iPhone video is in the MOV format and will be rejected in the upload (first image below).

The iPhone photo option puts a jpeg image directly into the forum reply/post (second image below) without saving it in the iPhone's photo file (also does not provide the editing such as image cropping prior to upload - posts image as taken).

—————

The max file size for each image/attachment is 3 MBytes. The total memory allowed for attachments per post is 60 MBytes (6 files for each post/reply if each being the 3 MBytes max would be a total of 18 MBytes, well under the 60 MBytes maximum per post/rely).

[Dave F]

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I don't have a YouTube account, so that option is out. I was just looking in the App Store, and there do appear to be a number of zip file apps available.  I'll pick one and download it. Then, I'll make a short video of the string being pulled and then rewound.  I'll have to be sure that the final zipped product is less than 3Mb (if that is possible).  If I can do all that, I'll then try posting it to the Forum.

I'll need some help taking the video, as I will need both hands to operate the "string machine".  Maybe I can get my wife to hold the camera! This all will take some time, so hang in there. In the meantime, keep sending your thoughts on what this little Doohickey is for.

DF

[TelePlay]

After you use your iPhone to take the video, you can edit the video right on the iPhone.

You can crop the video to remove unneeded background (get the field of view right around the tool) and then clip the beginning and end times to shorten the video.

Such editing reduces the file size of the video. If you can get it under 3 MBytes, you should be able to attach it in a zip file then viewable (after extracting it) on a computer or phone that displays MOV files, probably all of them.

[Dave F]

After you use your iPhone to take the video, you can edit the video right on the iPhone.

You can crop the video to remove unneeded background (get the field of view right around the tool) and then clip the beginning and end times to shorten the video.

Such editing reduces the file size of the video. If you can get it under 3 MBytes, you should be able to attach it in a zip file then viewable (after extracting it) on a computer or phone that displays MOV files, probably all of them.

I've never tried editing a video on the iPhone.  Will have to see how that works.  I will put this project in my "inbox" of things to do.  Hopefully can get to it soon.

DF

[TelePlay]

With the image or video open on your phone, start by clicking on the "sliders" in the blue circle

[Dave F]

With the image or video open on your phone, start by clicking on the "sliders" in the blue circle

I'm familiar with using that to edit photos; I just have never tried it with videos. This will be a learning experience!

DF

[TelePlay]

I'm familiar with using that to edit photos; I just have never tried it with videos. This will be a learning experience!

Google something like "editing iPhone video" to get really good "how to" info.

Not only can you crop and trim the video but you can and such edit exposure, balance, color, sound, etc.

[TelePlay]

Did a little research and found this APP that will compress video files.

I tried it on a 10 second iPhone taken video that was 14.8 MBytes in file size. That was after I had cropped the image and then trimmed the ends to make it exactly 10 seconds long.

This app allowed me to reduce the frame rate (changed it to 45% of original) and reduced the resolution to 50% of original. This created a new 10 second .MOV video file that was about 560 Bytes in size, well under the 3 MByte max. The quality of the compressed video was good.

That was the easy part. The hard part was trying to convert, to save the compressed video, into a ZIP file. There is a way to do that on an iPhone but I gave up after a half hour of trying.

NOTE: Figured out the ZIP process. The once 14 MB mov video is attached in a 1.9 MB zip file (the audio in this 10 second video is from my TV, just background noise I forgot to remove when editing the original video).

[Dave F]

Did a little research and found this APP that will compress video files. . . .
. . . . NOTE: Figured out the ZIP process. . . .

Great work.  I'll give it a try, hopefully soon!

I will still need to make the zip file on the iPhone. From your research, is that process contained within IOS or is an external app required?

DF

[TelePlay]

I will still need to make the zip file on the iPhone. From your research, is that process contained within IOS or is an external app required?

I did a Google search for

"how to create a zip file of photos on iphone"

and got a lot of good links. It's a bit too complicated for me to explain but basically involves moving the edited video to the "files" folder, selecting the video and then saving it using the "compress" option.

[TelePlay]

This original video was 15 seconds, cropped and trimmed it to 7 seconds (10 MBytes).

Compressed it by reducing the 30 FPS to 15 FPS and reducing the resolution by 50%, compressed video size was then 210 KBytes.

Zipped it and attached it to this reply.

All was done on my iPhone. Given the large reduction in file size, I could have kept the resolution higher for the short video, a longer video may have needed the large drop on resolution to stay under 3 MBytes.

This is tricky doing it the first few times having to move the edited video to Files and then use two different APPs to compress and ZIP the video, but it can be done.

[Dave F]

I did a Google search for

"how to create a zip file of photos on iphone"

and got a lot of good links. It's a bit too complicated for me to explain but basically involves moving the edited video to the "files" folder, selecting the video and then saving it using the "compress" option.

Thanks for all your efforts.  I will try to find the time to dig into it.

DF

[Dave F]

OK, I made a small test video.  Original file size is 12.5 Mb.  I then downloaded two apps from the App Store.  One is a video compressor and the other is a zip/unzip app.  I ran the video through the compressor and it came out at 6.2Mb.  Still too large, so I ran the compressed file through the compressor a second time and the result is 2 Mb.  The visual quality of this final version is indistinguishable from the original.  So far, so good.  I ran the final product through the zip program, which adds some additional compression.  Final file size is about 1.2 Mb, and is posted here.  Take a look at it and give me your evaluations.  If this attempt has proven successful, I will make plans to do a string-pull/rewind video next.

DF

[TelePlay]

Looks great! It's bigger than I imagined from you still images.

Video quality is very good. Glad you got to figure out out and post the video.

To view it, I tapped the attached ZIP file, tapped download, found it in my download folder, tapped on the ZIP file to extract your video and tapped on the extracted video to watch it.