What's the best way to compress large video files? Probably there's some cool software to do it, but the only software I've found is either overly complicated or comes with ten internet toolbars. Here's a relatively simple way that harnesses the power of YouTube.

Step 1: Upload the video to YouTube. It took 30 minutes to upload my 1GB file and a few more minutes to process it.

Step 2: Download it with www.clipconverter.cc. For my 1.15 GB file, clipconverter offered these options:

• YouTube Video High Quality (480p), size: 47 MB
• YouTube Video Standard Quality (360p), size: 28 MB
• YouTube Video Mobile Version (3GP), size: 8 MB

1.15 GB down to 8MB - that's not bad! That's less than 1% of the original size. The only problem is the video now looks a clip from America's Most Wanted because everyone's faces are so pixellated.

Before

After