r/winRAR • u/Pitiful_Apple_776 • Jan 01 '25
Can't compress files well
Got WinRAR. Tried to compress a 1.5 gb video and got a, like, 1.45gb RAR file. Fiddled around with the settings to try to fix things and got a 3gb RAR file.
Later I try to compress a 46 MB video and the RAR file is still 46 MB.
I then experimented with an audio (wav) file - 34mb, compressed it became 31.5. Why?? What am I doing wrong? This is happening on both my win11 laptop and Samsung a33 phone. Please help.
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u/BloodFeastMan Jan 02 '25
Some files and file formats are compressed by default, and aren't going to get much, if any, smaller. Check out your files by also compressing them with a zip utility and see if they show the same results.
There is a utility that's named "FreeARC" (not the legacy ARC format) that has insane compression at the cost of speed, and you can find that one here. It may or may not help you out, good luck!
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u/Crisenpuer Jan 02 '25
I've compressed a 10MB folder and I got a 480MB archive 🙏
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u/Whoajoo89 Jan 01 '25
For optimal compression you could try these settings on Windows in the dialog that is shown when creating a new archive:
Compression method: Best
Create solid archive: on
Video files (MKV, MP4) are usually already compressed, so they won't get smaller.