Some notes on image compression

One of the hard parts about our job is making the complex understandable to the common juror. Once we've achieve a mastery of our tools, this becomes a bit easier. As we talk with our peers about the processes that we use, our discussion comfort level increases. Most of us, however, have trouble making compression understandable, even to ourselves.

There are many types of compression out there. I have found a few links that may help you in explaining the various compression schemes that you may encounter.

General notes on image compression

General notes on video compression

General notes on multimedia containers

Chroma Subsampling favours luma over chroma - used in JPEG.

Transform Coding can be used as a precursor to compression - as in JPEG and MPEG.

General notes on video codecs.

As with any link on the web, check it's accuracy and don't take it for granted that it's factually correct. These links are just suggested starting points on discovery tour. Another great place to find information is O'Reilly's Safari Book Service. You can also find a lot of information about DVR viewers and programs at Larry Compton's site (highly recommended!).