Hello Cinemaniacs!
Welcome to our latest post where we’ll delve into the mesmerizing world of video compression. I’ll be your guide along this journey, which might sound tech-heavy, but I promise you, it’s a journey worth embarking on especially if you find yourself spending a fair amount of time around digital videos (which is pretty much every one of us). So, tighten your seatbelt, and let’s get started.
First, What’s Video Compression?
You see, video compression is just like when you stuffed your clothes into your suitcase for your last vacation. You pushed, folded, and sometimes even sat on the suitcase to make sure everything fit in. That’s essentially what your tech devices do to video files. It’s a process that minimizes the size of a video file without affecting its quality ever so dramatically, hence, making it easier to store and transmit.
A Trip Down Memory Lane
Here’s a little anecdote. I remember back in the early 2000s when I was first starting in digital media. I was tasked to send a video file across to a client. The size of the file was a whopping 5GB! After trying to send the video without any success, I discovered the magic of video compression (thank God for that, right?). Not only did it help me out of that pickle but it also keeps aiding us today in streaming our favorite Netflix shows without any buffering issues!
Terms You Should Know
- Bitrate: This is the amount of data processed per second. The higher the bitrate, the better the video quality and the bigger the file size.
- Resolution: It’s the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed.
- Frame Rate: This is the frequency at which frames in a television picture, film, or video sequence are displayed.
Why Do We Need It?
Simply put, video files are big — no, scratch that — huge! An uncompressed video can take up tons of your storage space. As a result, storing or transmitting them becomes a hassle. Besides, nobody wants to spend an hour downloading a single video, right? We live in the age of TikTok and YouTube, we want our videos and we want them now! That’s precisely where video compression steps in, making sure you can enjoy your favorite content without pulling your hair out in frustration.[1]
Conclusion or The Takeaway
So there you have it folks, a beginner-friendly rundown of video compression, explained right from the heart of an avid cinema lover (yours truly!). The process might not be very evident to the viewer’s eye, but it is constantly working behind the scenes to make our digital lives much smoother.
Until next time, keep watching and keep exploring! And remember, behind every smooth video playback, there’s a hard-working compression algorithm making it all happen.
1 McMillan, Wayne. “What Is Video Compression? – Definition & Techniques.” Study.com. Accessed March 20, 2022.