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It takes an optimized video file from YouTube and bloats it into a GIF that is 20 times larger. Why not just mute the video, trim it, and reduce its resolution

It takes an optimized video file from YouTube and bloats it into a GIF that is 20 times larger. Why not just mute the video, trim it, and reduce its resolution? GIF needs to die.

builderone 6y ago
GIFs should not be compared to videos, for one GIF is 30 year old technology with obvious limitations, however, there is still demand due to its portability. It also creates better effect if its very short clip, which most GIFs are. I appreciate you checking it out.
- SimeVidas 6y ago
  In what sense are video files not portable? Any web browser can play them without issues.
  - jazzyjackson 6y ago
    I still haven’t figured out the magic codec I can plug into ffmpeg so the self hosted videos on my Wordpress work on all web browsers (i thought h264 would do it but mobile still doesn’t like it) gifs are designed to be portable and work every time
    - tenryuu 6y ago
      In contrast, if your gif is over 1MB, my mobile browser will not display it. This is done to prevent excess data use. (It's a uBo ruleset) I'm unsure what browsers will still not support h264 however. Most commonly you'd find webmasters using both webm and mp4s in their video sources to allow the benefits of the webm filesize, and the mp4 to support ios devices
    - XCSme 6y ago
      Check this out: https://gist.github.com/ingramchen/e2af352bf8b40bb88890fba4f47eccd0 https://gist.github.com/ingramchen/e2af352bf8b40bb88890fba4f...
      - jazzyjackson 6y ago
        I always forget about yuv420p, I'll try it thanks!
- catalogia 6y ago
  What platform doesn't have the ability to play an mp4 file? GNU Icecat on a FSF approved distro maybe, but beyond that? The portability advantage of gifs are greatly overstated. The way I see it, gifs are strictly obsolete. They're big, load slow, and have limited color support (what's the point of a high-resolution gif if you're going to trash all the color data anyway?)
  - builderone 6y ago
    You made all the right points about GIF, it is an outdated technology for sure, but nothing has truly replaced it yet, there is apng as well as other technologies, but that's not universally supported as GIFs are.
wyck 6y ago
Giphy is worth an estimated 300 million, gifs are extremely popular on mobile and discussion boards, your comment is not relevant to the actual marketplace.
- chronogram 6y ago
  They serve video files with .gif as absolute fallback.
- SimeVidas 6y ago
  When a popular website says it’s serving you a GIF, it’s actually serving you a video file. ;-)
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
anderspitman 6y ago
I agree with you on a technical level, but the fact is the UX for sharing gifs is still superior to video. The ability to copy/paste them, and the fact they appear inline and autoplay in contexts like text messages are killer features. Users simply don't care how big the file is or really even how grainy it is, as long as it works.
- builderone 6y ago
  Also to add to your point, file storage is becoming ambiguous with cloud option and also very cheap and abundant on most devices these days, internet speed is fast enough that large file size is not that big of an issue, so the benefits outweigh its limitations. GIFs are still best way to quickly share something that is expressive and purely visual. There are other technologies to support looping visual, but nothing that has been universally supported as GIF has. I'll be happy to offer other formats once they become available in the future.
  - SimeVidas 6y ago
    Could you give an example of a scenario where a GIF is more supported than a video? Also, don’t forget that GIFs require much more processing power. A couple of large GIFs can bring a low-end smartphone to a crawl.

It takes an optimized video file from YouTube and bloats it into a GIF that is 20 times larger. Why not just mute the video, trim it, and reduce its resolution? GIF needs to die.

builderone 6y ago

GIFs should not be compared to videos, for one GIF is 30 year old technology with obvious limitations, however, there is still demand due to its portability. It also creates better effect if its very short clip, which most GIFs are. I appreciate you checking it out.

SimeVidas 6y ago
In what sense are video files not portable? Any web browser can play them without issues.
- jazzyjackson 6y ago
  I still haven’t figured out the magic codec I can plug into ffmpeg so the self hosted videos on my Wordpress work on all web browsers (i thought h264 would do it but mobile still doesn’t like it) gifs are designed to be portable and work every time
  - tenryuu 6y ago
    In contrast, if your gif is over 1MB, my mobile browser will not display it. This is done to prevent excess data use. (It's a uBo ruleset) I'm unsure what browsers will still not support h264 however. Most commonly you'd find webmasters using both webm and mp4s in their video sources to allow the benefits of the webm filesize, and the mp4 to support ios devices
  - XCSme 6y ago
    Check this out: https://gist.github.com/ingramchen/e2af352bf8b40bb88890fba4f47eccd0 https://gist.github.com/ingramchen/e2af352bf8b40bb88890fba4f...
    - jazzyjackson 6y ago
      I always forget about yuv420p, I'll try it thanks!
catalogia 6y ago
What platform doesn't have the ability to play an mp4 file? GNU Icecat on a FSF approved distro maybe, but beyond that? The portability advantage of gifs are greatly overstated. The way I see it, gifs are strictly obsolete. They're big, load slow, and have limited color support (what's the point of a high-resolution gif if you're going to trash all the color data anyway?)
- builderone 6y ago
  You made all the right points about GIF, it is an outdated technology for sure, but nothing has truly replaced it yet, there is apng as well as other technologies, but that's not universally supported as GIFs are.

wyck 6y ago

Giphy is worth an estimated 300 million, gifs are extremely popular on mobile and discussion boards, your comment is not relevant to the actual marketplace.

chronogram 6y ago
They serve video files with .gif as absolute fallback.
SimeVidas 6y ago
When a popular website says it’s serving you a GIF, it’s actually serving you a video file. ;-)

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

anderspitman 6y ago

I agree with you on a technical level, but the fact is the UX for sharing gifs is still superior to video. The ability to copy/paste them, and the fact they appear inline and autoplay in contexts like text messages are killer features. Users simply don't care how big the file is or really even how grainy it is, as long as it works.

builderone 6y ago
Also to add to your point, file storage is becoming ambiguous with cloud option and also very cheap and abundant on most devices these days, internet speed is fast enough that large file size is not that big of an issue, so the benefits outweigh its limitations. GIFs are still best way to quickly share something that is expressive and purely visual. There are other technologies to support looping visual, but nothing that has been universally supported as GIF has. I'll be happy to offer other formats once they become available in the future.
- SimeVidas 6y ago
  Could you give an example of a scenario where a GIF is more supported than a video? Also, don’t forget that GIFs require much more processing power. A couple of large GIFs can bring a low-end smartphone to a crawl.