I'm doing some testing to see what the best format / upload site is.
This webp file was uploaded to an external site (not many support animated webp files, but ~~ImgBB is one I found that does).
I've used the full URL (rather than the direct hot-link), because using the hot-link often results in Lemmy pulling the file in and re-compressing it.~~
(edit: imgbb deleted the original post, have re-uploaded to catbox.moe instead. Whether lemmy lets a file stay on catbox, or copies it in and re-compresses it though, is difficult to determine)
An alternative is to make a text post, and hot-link the image as an inline link in the body. This has decent support on mobile clients, but it looks more like you've made a mistake in your upload for web clients.
Lossy .webp file, 1.16MB, uploaded to ImgBB
Desktop
web:
Thumbnail? yes, Loads in post? no, Loop? yes
alexandrite:
Thumbnail? yes (but cuts image), Loads in post? no, Loop? yes
photon:
Thumbnail? no, Loads in post? yes (but cuts image), Loop? yes
tesseract:
Thumbnail? no, Loads in post? yes, Loop? yes
mlmym:
Thumbnail? static image, Loads in post? no, Loop? yes (on click-through)
Mobile (thumbnail refers to Link View)
sync:
Thumbnail? yes, Loads in post? yes, Loop? yes
voyager:
Thumbnail? no (broken image), Loads in post? yes (but cuts image), Loop? yes
connect:
Thumbnail? no, Loads in post? no, Loop? yes (on click-through)
liftoff:
Thumbnail? yes, Loads in post? no (still thumbnail size), Loop? yes
jerboa:
Thumbnail? yes, Loads in post? no (still thumbnail size), Loop? yes
thunder:
Thumbnail? yes, Loads in post? yes, Loop? yes
I don't have access to every front-end and mobile app available. Please share your experiences with whatever it is you use. Thanks.
The Lana was bit middling on my tests too. Weirdly Cavill worked on Sync for Android when I first tested it, but now it's decided that it's a still image.
So this means that of mp4, webp and gif, the most inefficient one is the one with the most widespread support. Oh, well - the community is called 'gifs' after all!
That’s disappointing. I didn’t actually look because I’m lazy, but which format was which? (Spoken like a true tester 😜)
Hopefully as time goes on the other things will be added (apps weren’t started until quite recently, perhaps support will be added as they mature), and it will improve.
Most of my apps also have Lemmy communities, so you could request support for the other formats
Cheers is a gif, Lana is an MP4, Cavill is a webp hosted on Lemmy, and Dance Off is a webp hosted externally.
Yeah, I think all the apps are in relatively early stages, and the Devs have all prioritised different things. But I'll look into their Communities/GitHub sites and see if there's already an issue raised, or if I should raise one.
If you ever need further testing, feel free to hit me up :)
Will do, thanks.