Did you know that one frame of Internet standard uncompressed video increases to about 27 times its original size in high definition resolutions! Uncompressed video files take up lots of space and with the increasing demand of high definition video content, the amount of storage space required is surely going to be mindboggling. Besides that, with HDTV, the bit-rate can easily exceed 1Gbps. This can create huge problems for network communications and storage. This is where video file compression comes in. Video file compression reduces the size of video files by removing some data from the original file. Here in this article we will take a look at some of the most important things you should know about video file compression.
Video File Compression: Types
Video file compression can be broadly subdivided into the following two categories –
* Lossless Video Compression – Lossless video compression as the name suggests, refers to compression where no data is lost. With lossless compression, no data is removed during the compression process – you get back the same original data after decompression. The major advantage with lossless compression is that you can compress the video file, a number of times without any loss of video data. However, the drawback is that you don’t save much storage space (as compared to lossy compression).
* Lossy Video Compression – Lossy video compression is what most of us are familiar with. Almost 95 percent of all video compression today is lossy. With lossy compression, some amount data is removed during the process. As a result, you don’t get back the same original data on decompression. However, it isn’t as and as you might think. While with a text document losing data can be a problem, but when it comes to videos, even if some parts are removed it doesn’t make much of a difference to the image. Also, you save more storage space with lossy compression. The drawback here however, is that repeated cycles of lossy video compression will reduce video quality.
Video File Compression Formats: Types
Here are two of the most commonly used video compression formats used today –
* MPEG-4 – One of the widely used video compression formats for video security, MPEG -4 offers better quality as compared to MPEG-2. It supports resolutions right from CIF/3.75 fps at 128kbps to D1/30 fps at 6Mbits/sec.
* H.264 – Also known as MPEG-4 part 10 or MPEG-4, H.264 offers improved compression of video files as compared to both MPEG-4 and MPEG-2. It can easily manage high definition content like those on Blu-ray discs and HD-DVDs.
services, they can provide you with high quality compression for video files no matter what your requirements.
