Honest, sourced guides on codec choice, file-size math, hardware acceleration, and the parts of video conversion that nobody documents in one place. Written by the team building Video Forge.
Discord's upload cap depends on which Nitro tier the sender is on. Free 10 MB, Nitro Basic 50 MB, Nitro 500 MB. Bitrate math, codec choice, and the click path for each.
Email attachment caps haven't moved in fifteen years. Gmail 25 MB, Outlook 20 MB, iCloud Mail 20 MB. Bitrate math, codec choice, and when to send a link instead.
iMessage has no hard size cap but quality dies on big files anyway. Plus the HEVC hvc1 vs hev1 tagging trap that breaks iPhone-to-iPhone clips. The fixes.
Pulling the audio track out of a video file should be a 3-second operation. MP3 vs M4A vs WAV, when to stream-copy without re-encoding, and the click path.
GIFs are 35 years old and still in everyone's chat. The palette pipeline cuts file size by 3-5× over naive conversion. Frame rate, dimensions, dithering — the practical version.
Vertical video specs: 1080×1920 at 30 or 60 fps, H.264, AAC. Duration caps per platform, fit modes (letterbox/crop/squish), and the click path for each.
WhatsApp caps videos at 16 MB on mobile, 100 MB on desktop. Exact bitrate math, codec choice, and a step-by-step flow to fit any clip under the cap.
Practical comparison of the three codecs that matter in 2026: file size, encoder speed, playback compatibility, and which one to actually pick.
Most encoders target quality, some bitrate, almost none target file size. How two-pass encoding works, when to use it, and the math behind hitting any cap.
Hardware video encoders are 5–20× faster than software ffmpeg, with a small quality cost. What each one does, when to use it, and how Video Forge auto-picks.
Convert MOV to MP4 on macOS in seconds, lossless, no upload required. The 3-second remux trick, when re-encoding is needed, and how to automate it.
Cloud converters are slow on big files, leak footage to third parties, and charge monthly. When they make sense, and when local conversion wins.