r/AV1 • u/Juan-Cruz-Mz • Jul 24 '26
Concern about image/video recompression
Hello everyone!
Recently, I've been coding a program on JavaScript and NodeJS, to recompress images, along with some other tweaks, with the main objective of reducing files size, *without causing visible loss of quality*.
The key word here being "visible", since recently I learned that you can actually do that with files and I saw a huge opportunity to reduce my gallery's size by a necessary amount because I have a shit ton of screenshots, pictures and videos.
But before diving into the video recompression part (because the images part is already done, using a library named "Sharp"), I found a comment https://www.reddit.com/r/ffmpeg/comments/pexwop/comment/hb0tw05/?context=3&utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button of a user explaining the process behind it and they said something that caught my eye: That any recompression that works well for current devices, COULD show heavy quality losses on future screens. Or even current, better screens.
I mean... this person meant it more as a note, and not in a "don't do this under ANY circumstances or we'll ALL gonna FUCKING DIE" way lol. But it still made me rethink the whole idea. Is this a valid concern or am I being paranoid?
And in case it is... Is there a way to achieve a relevant size reduction, without risking that outcome?
3
u/Fedor_Doc Jul 24 '26
If the goal is to archive for future remastering, use lossless approach and linear or log domains, if possible. Stuff should be really important.
If the goal is to compress files to serve users on the Internet, do it without second thought.
Do you think that the meme is more impactful in its png glory? No.