Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms for sharing photos and videos. With billions of users worldwide, Facebook sees a huge amount of visual content uploaded every day. To manage bandwidth and storage demands, Facebook does use compression on videos uploaded to the platform.
What is video compression?
Video compression is a process of encoding visual data to reduce the overall file size. This is done by eliminating redundant information and optimizing the video for efficient storage and transmission. There are various video compression algorithms, with popular ones being H.264 and H.265. Compression leads to some loss of quality, but balances visual fidelity with smaller file sizes.
Why does Facebook compress videos?
There are a few key reasons why Facebook compresses user uploaded videos:
- Reduce bandwidth usage – By compressing videos, Facebook reduces the amount of data that needs to be transmitted across its servers and networks. This saves on bandwidth costs.
- Save storage space – Compressed videos take up less storage space on Facebook’s servers. With billions of users, storage optimization is crucial.
- Improve streaming speeds – Smaller video files stream faster and more smoothly compared to uncompressed videos.
- Consistency across platforms – Compression allows videos to playback properly on different devices and platforms that Facebook supports.
Overall, compression helps Facebook efficiently manage the terabytes of video content that get uploaded daily by its users. It ensures a reliable and smooth experience despite Facebook’s massive scale.
What are Facebook’s video compression settings?
Facebook uses the H.264 video codec for compressing videos. Some key technical details regarding Facebook’s compression include:
- Resolution – 720p HD (1280 x 720 pixels) maximum
- Bitrate – 8Mbps maximum
- Framerate – 30 fps
- Audio – AAC compression at 192 Kbps
Higher resolution, bitrate, framerate or audio quality settings than the above maximums will be transcoded by Facebook to fit into these parameters. The exact compression settings can vary based on the video resolution and length.
Does Facebook re-compress already compressed videos?
Yes, Facebook will re-compress videos that have already been compressed using other codecs. Even if you upload a video that is compressed with H.264 codec, Facebook will transcode it using their preset compression profiles. This allows them to standardize videos based on their desired technical limits.
What is the impact of Facebook’s compression on video quality?
Facebook’s compression does lead to some loss of visual quality compared to the original uncompressed video. Here are some of the impacts:
- Reduced resolution – Videos are downscaled to a maximum of 720p, resulting in lower sharpness and detail.
- Increased artifacts – Compression can introduce digital artifacts like pixelation, color banding and blocking.
- Softened textures – Fine details like textures, gradients get smoothed out due to quantization loss.
- Lower frame rates – High FPS videos are converted to 30fps, reducing motion smoothness.
That said, for casual viewing, Facebook’s compression still retains decent visual quality, good enough for the small screens it is designed for. But professional videographers and content creators may notice the lack of fidelity versus the original footage.
Does Facebook compression affect video size?
Yes, Facebook’s video compression leads to dramatically smaller file sizes. Here is an example to demonstrate the difference in video size before and after Facebook compression:
| Video Details | Before Compression | After Facebook Compression |
|---|---|---|
| Resolution | 1080p | 720p |
| Length | 1 minute | 1 minute |
| Size | 90 MB | 4.5 MB |
As you can see, a 1 minute 1080p video’s size reduced from 90MB to just 4.5MB after Facebook’s compression. This is a huge reduction of nearly 95%. So Facebook compression drastically decreases the amount of storage space videos require.
Does Facebook alter the aspect ratio of videos?
No, Facebook aims to preserve the aspect ratio of videos during its compression and transcoding process. This ensures videos do not appear horizontally or vertically distorted on playback. Some examples:
- A 1080p video with 16:9 aspect ratio will remain 16:9 when compressed to 720p.
- A vertical video shot on a phone in 9:16 aspect will also stay 9:16.
- Anamorphic widescreen 2.39:1 clips won’t be cropped or distorted either.
Maintaining proper aspect ratio results in better viewing experience across different platforms and devices. However extremely wide or tall ratios may get letterboxed during playback.
Does Facebook compression affect video encoding time?
Yes, compressing videos to Facebook’s specifications requires additional encoding time compared to uploading uncompressed videos. Here are some examples of how Facebook compression increases video processing duration:
| Video Stats | Encoding Time (Uncompressed) | Encoding Time (Facebook Compressed) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 min 4K clip | 2 minutes | 5 minutes |
| 5 min 1080p clip | 10 minutes | 15 minutes |
| 1 hour 720p clip | 90 minutes | 120 minutes |
As you can see, Facebook compression can increase encoding time by 2x to 3x depending on the video. This is because of the additional processing required for transcoding and compressing to Facebook’s target formats.
Does Facebook allow uploading uncompressed videos?
No, Facebook does not provide users the option to upload uncompressed videos. All user uploaded video content has to go through Facebook’s compression algorithms before being published. This is to ensure consistent technical standards across videos.
However, Facebook does allow uploading videos at higher resolutions and bitrates than its compression targets. For example, you can upload a 4K or 8K video, which will then be transcoded by Facebook to 720p with appropriate compression. But an uncompressed or lightly compressed video cannot be directly uploaded.
How to upload videos to Facebook with minimum compression?
While you cannot control Facebook’s compression settings directly, here are some tips to upload videos that retain maximum quality:
- Upload the highest resolution available – Use original 4K or 1080p sources instead of lower resolution files.
- Maintain high bitrate for your masters – 100 Mbps plus video bitrates are ideal.
- Include original audio without lossy compression – Use WAV or other lossless audio.
- Use optimal codec settings – Stick to H.264 or H.265 at high profiles.
- Minimize edits and re-encodes – Edit masters, not compressed versions.
- Upload directly instead of screen recording – Avoid secondary lossy encodes.
Following these practices ensures your video starts off with pristine quality before Facebook compression. This results in better visual fidelity after Facebook transcoding compared to videos that are already heavily compressed.
Is Facebook video compression lossy or lossless?
Facebook uses lossy video compression techniques to reduce file size. Lossy compression leads to irreversible loss of quality by discarding non-critical video data. Though the quality reduction is minimized, it is not possible to recover the original video precisely from the compressed version.
Lossless compression, used in archiving, compacts data without information loss. However, lossless compression achieves much lower reduction in file size compared to lossy compression. For supporting billions of users, Facebook favors efficient lossy video compression over archival lossless techniques.
Can you download an uncompressed version after uploading to Facebook?
No, there is no way to download the original uncompressed version of a video from Facebook after uploading. Facebook only stores and serves the compressed version of the video that is optimized for their platforms. The original is discarded during transcoding.
However, before uploading, users can download a copy for their records to retain the uncompressed master. But once a video is uploaded and processed by Facebook, only the smaller compressed version remains available for downloading.
Does Facebook re-compress videos every time they are processed?
No, Facebook does not re-compress videos every time they are processed or re-shared. Once a video is uploaded and compressed, that optimized version is retained by Facebook. When the video is downloaded, re-shared or embedded, the same compressed copy is used rather than creating new compressed variants.
However, if you delete the original video and re-upload it, Facebook will transcode and compress it again fresh as it no longer has access to the old compressed version. But repeated sharing, downloading, etc of the same video does not trigger recompression.
Can you detect if a video has been compressed by Facebook?
There are some signs that indicate a video has undergone Facebook compression:
- Reduced resolution – 720p or lower resolution suggests Facebook compression.
- H.264 codec – Facebook’s choice of video codec.
- Distinct visual artifacts – Pixelation, color banding point to high compression.
- Small file size relative to length – Extremely small video size indicates optimization.
- Capped bitrate and framerate – 8Mbps bitrate and 30fps framerate are telltale limits.
- AAC audio codec – Facebook transcodes audio to AAC format.
Examining technical parameters and visual quality can reliably determine if a video has been processed via Facebook’s compression pipelines.
Does Facebook compression affect the number of views or engagement?
Facebook’s video compression is not likely to directly affect the viewership or engagement metrics of videos uploaded to the platform. Some key reasons behind this:
- Compression mainly reduces technical quality rather than aesthetic appeal.
- Casual viewers are less discerning of compression artifacts and loss of fidelity.
- Video promotion has a bigger influence on reach than compression details.
- Trending topics, engaging content matter more than technical qualities.
- Most Facebook consumption happens on small mobile screens where visual artifacts are masked.
Summarizing the above points, the content, promotion and inherent virality of videos affect their popularity and engagement far more than compression parameters.
Conclusion
Facebook does use lossy video compression to optimize storage and streaming across its platforms. This results in reduced visual quality, especially for high resolution sources. However, for the average user uploading casual content, the compression is good enough for Facebook’s intended viewing scenarios.
Professional videographers may be concerned about the loss of fidelity compared to their original masters. In such cases, retaining a copy before uploading is recommended. Overall, Facebook’s compression and transcoding processes enable efficient media management at massive scale.