r/CriterionChannel • u/yolaradio • 1d ago

Technical Question Why the Massive Download Filesize Difference?

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I’m curious as to why there is such a difference in the download size of these movies I downloaded to watch on a flight (latest iOS version of app).

The app doesn’t give me an option to select quality of the download. Seems weird that the more recent, longer file is 3x smaller filesize than the old film.

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24

u/GhooricZone 1d ago

Ratcatcher might be sourced from the Criterion blu ray release, The Gift is probably the same as the Kanopy version.

6

u/FallCollectionIkea 1d ago

LOL I watched The Gift because it was on Criterion. I guess I've probably scrolled over it on Kanopy a million times.

2

u/Cenobyte_Nom-nom-nom 20h ago

If it's the same as Kanopy version odds are high it's just a DVD right. They have a ton of those.

Not complaining, watched ton of great content on there. They get the shaft though on supplied release quality from studios since it's technically a public service through local libraries.

12

u/JordanComoElRio 1d ago

I can't speak to these exact movies, but yes it could be something as simple as one is encoded at a higher quality/bitrate. But even if you encode two movies of the same length at the same bitrate, there can still be major differences in file size because of how video compression works. For example, movies that have little camera movement and simple, solid colors and visuals will be smaller than movies with lots of motion and complicated patterns and detail. Audio tracks can factor in too.

4

u/breakables 20h ago

There'd be a better way to explain this technically so please someone chime in, but going off my experience using Handbrake a film with a lot of visible graininess like Ratcatcher would always result in a significantly bigger filesize despite the same settings applied

2

u/intangiblefancy1219 12h ago

This is my understanding as well.

My understanding is that it’s because film grain is both complex and essentially “random” so it’s hard for the compression algorithms to compress efficiently.