Introduction
Data Compression plays very important role in Media Industry. Specially when the things comes in terms of sending , receiving and storing of data.
There are various compression algorithms used to compress the Data, Video and audio etc. Lets now discuss about What Is Data Compression? and How It Works?
What Is Data Compression ?
Data Compression is a technique used to reduce the size of data by removing number of bits. This technique uses various algorithm to do so. These compression algorithms are implemented according to type of data you want to compress.
In other words,
Implementation of formulas or Compression Algorithms on a data to enable it for easy transmission and storage. It is known as Data Compression.
What Are Compression Types & Its Working ?
These compression techniques have broadly divided into two types mentioned below,
(1) Lossless Compression
(2) Lossy Compression
(1) Lossless Compression
As its name indicate that this is loss-less compression. Because there is no data loss when the file is recovered or comes to its original state. Even a single bit is not deducted after restoration.
Lossless Compression is used in Image, Text File Compression where smaller amount of data loss is not tolerated. Because smaller loss in bit changes its information which is not required. It is also used for Executable Files. This type of compression is done to get low space consumption file.
After passing your data from this compression algorithm you gets compressed output which consume less space. So it is good for storage point of view. This compressed file is easy to send and receive over the internet.
Once this file is encoded with lossless compression algorithm then we need to send it over internet. At the receiving end receiver receive the encoded file and then decode it or decompress it to its original form.
Here is the example of some Lossless Compression Algorithms,
(1) RLE Compression
(2) Huffman Compression
(3) LZW Compression
(4) Flate Deflate Compression
Applications which we use for this kind of compression are,
etc.
GIF and PNG file extensions uses this compression technique.
(2) Lossy Compression
As its name indicates that lossy compression is done, where small losses in data is tolerable.
Lossy Compression is used Video & Audio specially. Because small amount of data loss is tolerable in audio and video which do not affect the viewers. By doing so we can save lot of space in storage device and bandwidth consumption over internet. Sometimes this type of compression is also used in images where quality do not matters that much.
This type of compression algorithm removes permanently repetitive content. Which saves lot of space in video file.
Here is the example of Lossy Compression Algorithm,
JPEG Compression
MPEG Compression
Advantages Of Compression ?
(1) Saves Disc Space
(2) Saves bandwidth consumption over internet while transmission.
(3) Improves file transfer speed
(4) Byte order independent
Disadvantages Of Compression ?
(1) Needs high CPU Power while compressing and decompressing file.
(2) Needs high RAM power while compressing and decompressing file.
(3) Error effects in transmission.
Conclusion
Compression techniques are used to reduce the file size of data which makes it easy for transmission. Compression Algorithms are used everywhere in Streaming media industry or digital video broadcasting industry.
These compression techniques have two biggest advantages that are storage and transmission. With major disadvantage is that, it needs high computing power to compress and decompress files instantly before transmission. To resolve this issue some companies uses Hardware Acceleration Card for their storage system.
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