vicor

Easily reduce video size right on your phone! Video files recorded by a phone are larger than they need to be. vicor offers two modes:

• "original" which keeps the original image size, but reencodes the video to make the file considerably smaller without noticeable loss in quality;
• "small", which rescales the video and reencodes the audio to make the file small enough for a quick share with your friends.

It has a very simple user interface:

• it shows the list of available video files;
• to select the latest video, simply press ENTER twice
• older videos can be selected by pressing ↑ or entering a filename (TAB completion is supported);
• selecting the encoding mode is one key tap;
• encoding may take a while, so you can carry the phone in your pocket and vicor will vibrate when finished;
• it will offer an option to view, send or remove the video, or just let it be.

Usage example

20190707_154855.mp4      VID_20190928_172605.mp4
VID_20190928_172555.mp4  VID_20190929_162338.mp4

> VID_20190929_162338.mp4

Video size: [o]original [s]mall s

ffmpeg version 4.2 Copyright (c) 2000-2019 the FFmpeg developers
  built with Android (5220042 based on r346389c) clang version 8.0.7

... lots of ffmpeg output ...

-rw-rw---- 1 root everybody 756K Oct 26 20:34 /data/data/com.termu
x/files/home/storage/shared/DCIM/vicor//VID_20190929_162338.mp4

[v]iew [s]end [r]emove [q]uit

Selecting [v]iew and [s]end will keep the menu open.

Installation

Prerequisites:

• Termux (F-Droid or Play Store)
• ffmpeg installed in Termux
• Termux:API to access storage and phone functions (F-Droid or Play Store)
• Termux:Widget for a handy shortcut (F-Droid or Play Store)

Please follow the instructions on Termux Wiki to set up ffmpeg, API (permissions, storage) and Widget.

The whole of vicor is in the script of the same name. It has a couple of settings at the top, which have reasonable defaults, except for videodir and outputdir which you need to set for your device. You can change these settings in the vicor script directly, or you can create a wrapper script that exports the corresponding environment variables.

When you have defined video and output directories (and/or other settings), place vicor or the wrapper script in the ~/.shortcuts directory. This is where Termux-Widget will pick it up. You can then add a shortcut to your home screen.

The settings mean the following:

• VICOR_VIDEO_DIR: the directory where vicor finds video files. This would tipically be the directory under DCIM where your camera app stores recordings.
• VICOR_OUTPUT_DIR: the directory where vicor will save the reencoded videos. They will have the same name as the source files, so don't set VIDEO and OUTPUT settings to the same directory.
• VICOR_MAX_SIZE: when resizing videos, this will be the maximum width (or height, in portrait mode) of the video. For example, a 1920x1080 video will be resized to 720x405.
• VICOR_AAC_QUALITY: when resizing videos, this will be the ffmpeg's quality goal. The default value noticeably reduces file size, but also quality. When keeping the original video size, audio is not touched.
• VICOR_FILE_SUFFIX: defaults to mp4 and should probably be kept that way, unless you're using vicor for something else besides reencoding on a phone.

An example wrapper script

If you don't want to modify the script directly, you can use a wrapper like the one below.

#!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/bash

export VICOR_VIDEO_DIR=$HOME/storage/shared/DCIM/OpenCamera/
export VICOR_OUTPUT_DIR=$HOME/storage/shared/DCIM/vicor/
export VICOR_MAX_SIZE=640

exec $HOME/vicor/vicor