Video compression or display is very harsh on pixel art

[qazmlp]

Describe the bug

The video compression or display seems unnecessarily harsh on pixel art.
For example, in https://bsky.app/profile/imjohnnyboy.bsky.social/post/3l3y5skz4hz2f the (autoplay-off) preview is relatively crisp, but when I play the video, it becomes a blurry mess.

To Reproduce

Upload a pixel art animation.

Expected behavior

I feel that if animated content has a naturally low bitrate and file size, it should be much more crisp.
If the uploaded media content has a low resolution, image-rendering: pixelated (or equivalent, i.e. anti-aliased pixel scaling) should ideally be used if that's possible on video elements.

Screenshots

Since it's not my art, I won't screenshot it here. Please see the post linked above.

Details

(Mine, not the uploader's!)

• Platform: web
• Platform version: Vivaldi 6.9.3447.41 (Stable channel) (64-Bit)
• App version: Build version: 1.91.0; Bundle info: 9912029 (prod); Bundle date: 24091118

Additional context

Related bug for images: #1101

[TheShankar]

https://bsky.app/profile/drspectre.bsky.social/post/3l3wcmyqlfp2j

I also feel like this video is a great example, the "video" becomes extremely blurry.

Here is a direct comparison:
https://bsky.app/profile/shvvhs.bsky.social/post/3l3wdsfjfrr2u

[surfdude29]

This is just a guess on my part, but I think this may be due to the use of HLS streaming. AIUI the user starts off being served the lower-quality 360p stream, and then if their connection is fast enough it automatically switches to the 720p stream.

Because these are very short animations, I'm speculating that the switch to the 720p stream never happens and so all we're seeing is the 360p video looping.

[TheShankar]

@surfdude29 it does seem this could be it, for sure!

I made two tests and it seems like till the 00:09 seconds mark, the video is blurry. From 09 seconds forward it's very close to the original resolution posted:

https://bsky.app/profile/shvvhs.bsky.social/post/3l3yxnkds232n

edit: I think you hit the nail on the head, I download the video using cobalt and the resolution and crispness is perfect. So it's a streaming "issue".

Here is two screenshots, one from the bluesky player, and another one using the same video downloaded from bluesky using cobalt (right)

[RobTheFiveNine]

Not pixel art, but I suspect this is the same issue - I'm finding video footage to be extremely compressed / low resolution.

It seems to happen very consistently - take this example: https://bsky.app/profile/fiveninegames.bsky.social/post/3lbdm2gg4j22l at around the 6 second mark, it blurs enough that the text in the bottom right corner of the screen effectively isn't visible anymore.

Here is how the original video looks: https://www.threads.net/@fiveninegames/post/DCklh8LN0ZY