On a previous thread, considerate_guy posted, "What I might suggest is skipping Movie Maker completely if all you want to do is to trim a little bit and then convert the file type to .mp4.  In Freemake Video Converter, for example, you can select a video file or files (off a DVD directly, if you like).  You can choose to trim the video (including spots in the middle, not just the beginning and end) and finally you can choose the destination format (e.g. .mp4) and the bitrate and resolution settings."

That was from December 2012, and I'm wondering if it still applies today.

CURRENT ISSUE

I started with an mp4 file and saved it as such after trimming out several chunks (went from 50 minutes to 20). Saved it as "for computer" and the file size was bigger than the original! The same resolutions settings were used. I didn't experiment with the 'custom' setting as I'm not sure just what bitrate is or how to vary it. Doesn't MM offer any compression settings?

I really expect to see a smaller file size after cutting out more than half of a video clip. Why does MM do this?

Has MM improved in this regard in the past 2 years, or would FVC (or other program) be a better choice for trimming sections from a video and saving it with a reasonable file size?

Is there an easy way to just get MM to use the same settings as the original file?