Hello! I recently listened to a podcast that talked about how storing media files in .av1 format is very efficient and storage-friendly. I’ve been storing my files in .mkv format, but now I’m considering using Handbrake or a similar service to convert all my video files to .av1 if it’s more compressed than .mkv. So;
- What format do you store your media?
- What is the optimal way of storing media?
- Do you use handbrake or similar services (feel free to suggest) to convert media files?
The future is av1. Is it worth it to compress everything asap? No. Not all devices can play av1. You will still shoot pictures and videos in 264 or 265. Can you already edit av1? Do you do that? Check that everything you own and do can work with av1. You should prefer 265 over 264 nowadays.
Is it worth it for your own videos? It depends. If you have a lot, like terrabytes lot, of your own videos. Then yes, you could save storage. But, the time it’ll take to reencode and the power consumption it needs isn’t worth it. Just use av1 from nowon whereever possible if you export videos instead of 265 if all your devices and clients and friends who you’re sending them to can play it. I converted all old media to 265 two years ago (or so) to have everything compatible. I do not plan on converting to av1 just for storage reasons. Storage is cheap compared to the time I invest in caring about it. Converting for compatibility yes, storage no. I switched to immich and I have no files on my phone or laptop anymore.
Torrents? No it’s definetly not worth it to reencode. The guys who release the files are aware of av1 and they will switch as soon as almost all devices support av1 and people scream for it. It is not worth it to reencode imo. Just redownload once it’s available. You can push av1 adoption by releasing videos in av1 yourself. Ask for it. Talk about it. Spread the word.
Thanks, this answered pretty much all I was curious about. Appriciate it!
Same holds for avif and jxl. They are very storage efficient but jpg is still the best choice for compatibility reasons. You can use jxl to annoy chrome users because they can’t view it and probably apple users as well but apart from that fun there’s no reason to convert your whole library to it. Your devices, clients and editors have to support it. And we are still not there yet. Best is to spread the word that it’ll be the future but the future is not yet today. Best for their adoption is to stay away from vendors who try to push their own standard like apple.
Export in avif/jxl if you know you can play it everywhere but don’t convert a whole library to it unless you know you want have problems with it in the future. Jpg with 70% quality isn’t that bad.
Sounds good, thanks for letting me know. I’ll pass on the word :)
The default windows 10 installation for example can’t even handle h265 -.-