File Compression

tech explorer

tech explorer

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Say hypothetically you were to compress a 100 MB file. How much compression should one expect? Would it be in the range of 10% to 20% or a different range?
 
It depends on the contents of the file. Text for example compresses better than binary data, which generally doesn't....

It will also depend on the compression algorithm. Just like file types, some are better at compressing than others. Some work better on binary files (usually these are lossy), some just make them bigger (lossless).
 
Cromewell said:
It depends on the contents of the file. Text for example compresses better than binary data, which generally doesn't....

It will also depend on the compression algorithm. Just like file types, some are better at compressing than others. Some work better on binary files (usually these are lossy), some just make them bigger (lossless).
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Yeah I read that article. More specifically its video files I have in mind to compress.

Thanks.
 
Yeah I read that article. More specifically its video files I have in mind to compress.
Click to expand...
What kind of video files? If you're talking about raw, uncompressed video, then a good compression algorithm (something like LZMA) might halve the size of the file, even reduce it to a third. If it's in an already compressed format (like mpeg or webm), you'll gain absolutely nothing.
 
hackapelite said:
What kind of video files? If you're talking about raw, uncompressed video, then a good compression algorithm (something like LZMA) might halve the size of the file, even reduce it to a third. If it's in an already compressed format (like mpeg or webm), you'll gain absolutely nothing.
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Can't tell. What I can say is that the video files are probably a variety of formats such as MPG or wmv that I've downloaded from different websites and that my smartphone is giving me the opportunity to compress all of my video files which raises this question. Should I go with the compressor that came with the phone or should I search the Android market for a better compressor?
 
I wouldn't use LZMA on a video file. You'd be better off using h264 or divx/xvid etc.

However, wmv is already compressed and mpg probably is as well.
 
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Can't tell. What I can say is that the video files are probably a variety of formats such as MPG or wmv that I've downloaded from different websites and that my smartphone is giving me the opportunity to compress all of my video files which raises this question. Should I go with the compressor that came with the phone or should I search the Android market for a better compressor?
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Those are already compressed (almost certainly anyway), no use trying to compress them further. Since the compression on those is lossy, you'd probably end up making the quality just worse.

I wouldn't use LZMA on a video file. You'd be better off using h264 or divx/xvid etc.
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For viewing, of course not - but for backing up/archving raw, uncompressed video it's fine.
 
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