Lossless vs Lossy Video Compression

Lossless vs Lossy Video Compression

Data compression can approached in two ways. It can either be lossless compression or lossy video compression. Each has its advantages and benefits. It is much the same as choosing between h264 vs h265 wherein both are good choices for the applications that need to be used. Lossless and lossy video compressions have been terms used in the business for quite some time. In this article, you will learn about these two versions of video compression and why you should choose one over the other.

Differences and Advantages of Lossless and Lossy Video Compression

Lossless video compression

If you have a question lurking in your mind about whether to choose h264 vs h265 video codecs, then you are dealing with lossless video compression. There are many file formats that utilize lossless video compression. Aside from H.264 and H.265, you can also use Motion JPEG, Apple Animation RLE, and the like. Lossless video compression refers to the removal of unnecessary metadata to save storage space for your videos. It is the compression and decompression of data in lossless video compression that makes it a suitable video compression choice for those who do not want the original data to be reduced.

Lossy video compression

The term lossy compression has been used for video compression which is related to the loss of some of the original data. This type of video compression affects the file size effectively because of the reduction of storage use. Lossy video compression is the removal of some of the original data to save space on your computer or mobile device. Many software and hardware utilize lossy video compression for practical purposes. Through this type of compression, storage is expanded, loading times have been reduced, and the image quality is relatively maintained.

Key differences between lossy and lossless compression

With lossy video compression, you are going to lose some of the original data of the video file which will not be recovered. This can be a crucial decision for video makers who want every bit of detail on their videos for current and future use. Lossless video compression, on the other hand, can restore the compressed data. If you think that you can do away with some of the video data, you can choose the lossy option. If you believe that details are important, lossless is the only way to go.

What to pick

You have to be critical when picking which option to choose. Most of the time, for images and videos to be posted online, particularly on social media, people choose the lossy compression. This is because you can afford to lose some of the data without compromising the overall quality. For those who require the quality of the video to be maintained, your only option is lossless video compression. Here, you are only removing the metadata and not the files that can affect the quality of the video. Both video compressions can greatly reduce the file size and help you maintain your storage space.

Conclusion

The two types of video compression are lossless and lossy. They reduce your video’s file size through different methods. The lossy video compression approach is to remove some of the original data. The lossless video compression approach is to remove unnecessary metadata. Both have their benefits depending on their use. Like the comparison between h264 vs h265 video codec, you can be assured that choosing either of the two options mainly depends on your data type and the type of storing process that you want to do. Both are innovations that many video editors can benefit from.

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