A 4KB “Ne Zha 2”? Users Spark Extreme Compression Craze

It started subtly.

But as I watched, the GIF seemed to loop endlessly, never reaching its conclusion.

It wasn’t until a colleague casually remarked, “Is this the entire movie?” that the gravity of the situation sunk in –

The GIF was actually the full-length “NeZha 2.”

However, the reality was far more intriguing. A quick search revealed:

The viral GIF circulating on WeChat was the result of a grassroots competition among netizens to achieve the most extreme compression of “NeZha 2.”

The contest, dubbed the “Compression Wars” by those in the know, ignited, according to rumors, when one individual managed to shrink the two-hour film to a mere 50MB and shared it in a QQ group.

Verified to be only 50MB, the file boasted a resolution of 176×74 and a frame rate of 15, while miraculously retaining the complete runtime.

Although the image quality resembled something from a grainy ultrasound, those familiar with the film could readily identify the authentic NeZha.

The image captured is recognizable.

The file quickly went viral, spreading like wildfire across various group chats. Little did anyone anticipate that this sharing would trigger a full-blown compression competition.

Soon after, another coding wizard appeared in the QQ group, dropping their own compressed version of “NeZha 2,” this time weighing in at a mere 30MB.

Naturally, the already questionable quality deteriorated further, rendering the once-distinctive Barrier Beasts into an indistinguishable blob.

This entry marked the official ignition of the compression wars, with a growing number of participants joining the fray.

Versions clocking in at 20MB, 15MB, and even a minuscule 2.2MB began to surface.

As screenshots of these compressed files spread, the battlefield shifted from QQ group chats to broader platforms like Bilibili and Douyin.

Fueled by a desire to push the boundaries of compression technology, an army of tech enthusiasts entered the competition, eager to see just how small they could make the film.

One contender successfully shrunk “NeZha 2” to a mere 577kb, while another claimed to have reached the theoretical minimum of 4.46kb, effectively “killing the competition.”

But it didn’t end there.

A 7b version emerged, effectively superseding the “competition killer.”

That’s an exaggeration; this article has used more than 7 Bytes of data.

Some may question the watchability of such small files.

From 15MB onwards, the viewing experience was already compromised. The versions around hundreds of KB are just collections of colliding color blocks.

In this contest where “smallest is best,” useability is no longer a factor. They’re just getting it as small as possible.

Ultimately, as the visual quality deteriorated to the point that merely two minutes of footage could strain the eyes, the competition earned a new moniker: “Pupil-Grinding Visual Reduction.”

The question is, how do you compress gigabyte-sized movie files to mere kilobytes?

It’s not as complicated as it seems.

Traditional video compressions strive for balance: minimizing file size while preserving viewing quality. High bitrates result in large files, while low bitrates lead to artifacts in dynamic scenes.

The name of the game here is a simple deletion.

Starting with lowering the resolution, the most straightforward approach.

Reducing 4K or 1080P footage to a pixelated 144×72 drastically shrinks the file size by reducing the total number of pixels.

Followed by reducing the frame rate.

If 24 frames per second constitutes a video, can 5 or 1 frame per second also qualify?

By eliminating excess frames and retaining only the most visually crucial moments, the file size can be further reduced.

4k 60 fps = volume 4k, 60 frames per second

Finally, the bitrate and color depth can be reduced.

The bitrate affects the amount of data contained in each second of video while color depthdetermines the number of distinct hues.

A small file size can be achieved with the bare minimum bitrate and by decimating the color palette from many millions down to a mere 256, even if the video quality will also be reduced.

Audio can also be processed.

Lowering the sampling rate or bit rate can make high-quality audio sound like it’s coming from a vintage telephone. Or removing the audio entirely.

Hands-on is required.

To test how small the videos can become, we got a hold of some video editing software.

Our source material: a “Initial D” movie file, clocking in at 1 hour and 49 minutes and 1.19 GB.

After putting it into PR, Format Factory, and Permute, the various parameters were all dropped down to the bare minimum.

The final sizes were PR 17 MB, Format Factory 17 MB, and Permute 61 MB.

Even though PR and Format Factory were both 17MB, there are differences.

One resulted is is a scrambled video with clear audio.

The other had clear video at a poor frame rate, but Jay’s voice was distorted beyond recognition.

We compressed the PR export once again for a final file size of 10 MB.

And this is with the software’s default settings.

As mentioned previously, reducing the frame rate to one FPS or lower can push that boundry even further.

We won’t be testing that here.

Finally, we converted the video to GIF which further shrank the file size.

The GIF version shown below is around 5MB.

There are even more extreme versions that come out to 66kb, with the content being a collection of flashing pixels.

We couldn’t upload it due to the limited frame rate support.

We have covered related competitions before, such as 13kb game competitions and 4kb demo contests.

Developers were able to create games with complex concepts in 13kBs.

And render multiple-minute demos within only 4kb.

But this compression war is different in core concept.

It’s not about “what can I make with this limited space”, rather about “watch how much can I fit into that little space,” with visual quality being a negligable factor.

There were even claims of negative file sizes, meaning users got 50GB of cellphone data.

This close compression war has taken the form of abstract expression.

The size of the movie does not really matter.

Competitors have created a type of carnival with absurd levels of compression.

At its core, this compression war is a joke for industry insiders that, after constant shares and escalation –

Has become a bizarre internet spectacle.