Cited on HN 5 times, 2018–2023, never outright recommendedscore 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
Cited as a vivid demonstration of generation loss from repeated lossy re-encoding.
A condensed rendition of a project that re-uploaded one video to YouTube 1000 times, showing the accumulating compression artifacts. It pays homage to Alvin Lucier's I Am Sitting in a Room.
“Every time you render and recompress you're losing information, it's lossy compression after all.” (HN, 2023)
I remember back in like 2010, someone uploaded and ripped a YouTube video 1000 times and then edited the natural degradation of the compression. Went from perfectly watchable video to horrible static-y mess. Here it is! [this video]
Video re-uploaded 1000 times showing compression degradation.
You're not understanding how lossy compression encoders work. Try recompressing a JPEG a few dozen times. Or take an MP3 and export it from Audacity, open the export, export as MP3 again a dozen times and see what it sounds like. All those artifacts keep getting amplified every time you re-encode until it's practically just the artifacts. Every time you render and recompress you're losing information, it's lossy compression after all. [this video]
Illustrates how repeated lossy re-encoding amplifies artifacts.
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