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In one test, FFmpeg’s slow preset made a nearly static vertical video just 3,398 bytes (0.16%) smaller than medium. On a separate synthetic noisy clip, it saved 250,481 bytes (2.17%). Those results do not establish a universal winner: they show why preset comparisons need similar-sized outputs, representative footage, and the machine you actually use.
What the 0.16% result means
Obole’s September 15, 2026 test compared FFmpeg 6.1.1-3ubuntu5 using libx264 on a two-core ARM Neoverse-N1 server with 11 GiB of RAM and no GPU. The near-static source was 1080×1920 at 30 fps, ran for 61.80 seconds, and consisted mainly of white text on black. Its medium encode was 2,074,372 bytes; slow saved 3,398 bytes against that output, or 0.16%. Obole’s test and results
The result was different on the other source: a 12-second, 1080×1920, 30-fps synthetic pattern with temporal noise. There, slow saved 250,481 bytes, or 2.17%, from the medium output of 11,538,029 bytes. This was deliberately difficult synthetic material, not real camera footage. The two results are specific to these sources, settings, encoder build, and test machine—not an estimate of what every video will save.
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Preset: encoder search effort
For libx264, the preset controls how much encoding effort the encoder spends. A slower preset can search more extensively for ways to represent the video, but takes longer; it does not guarantee a particular size reduction or a visible quality improvement. FFmpeg documents preset as the encoding-preset option for libx264. FFmpeg libx264 documentation
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CRF: quality target, variable size
With libx264’s constant-quality mode, -crf sets a quality target while the resulting bitrate and file size can vary with the source. A lower CRF generally asks for higher quality and produces larger files; the same CRF number with different presets does not ensure equal output size or equal perceived quality. FFmpeg libx264 documentation
Bitrate: bitrate target, variable quality
The -b:v option sets a target video bitrate; the quality needed to meet it can vary with the material. A two-pass encode can help distribute a target bitrate over a complete file, but that does not make bitrate targeting inherently better or worse than CRF. In Obole’s near-static test, a two-pass 2 Mb/s encode produced 5,839,424 bytes from a 2,880,255-byte source. On the synthetic test, medium at CRF 32 was smaller at a similar reported SSIM. Those outcomes describe the tested sources and target only.
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Why matching CRF alone is a weak comparison
A preset comparison at the same CRF holds one setting constant, but not output size. On the near-static source at CRF 23, veryfast produced 1,873,445 bytes with luma SSIM 0.999581; medium produced 2,074,372 bytes with luma SSIM 0.999741. The medium output was larger, so that pair does not isolate preset efficiency at similar size.
Obole also compared veryfast CRF 23 with medium CRF 25 and 26 to bring output sizes closer. In those comparisons, veryfast offered similar size and quality with less encoding time. On this simple source, veryfast was reported to encode 24–32% faster than medium at similar size. The result applies to this test, not to all videos or computers.
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How content changed the trade-off
On the synthetic noisy source, medium at CRF 24 produced 9,175,052 bytes with SSIM 0.915240. Veryfast at CRF 23 produced 10,709,432 bytes with SSIM 0.914306. In that single comparison, medium was smaller and had slightly higher SSIM, at about twice the encoding time. Obole also reported medium at CRF 24 as 14.3% smaller than veryfast at CRF 23, with roughly twice the encoding time.
These comparisons illustrate why there is no preset that wins on every axis. A simple, mostly static image may have little for a slower preset to improve; noisy or detailed material can behave differently. The synthetic test is not a proxy for every detailed scene, and the easy text-on-black clip is not a proxy for typical phone footage.
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How to compare presets for your own video
- Choose representative footage. Use clips that reflect your actual content, including motion, texture, gradients, noise, and text if those appear in your videos. A short, unusually easy segment can make settings look more alike than they will across a full project.
- Hold the output goal constant. If you care about a target file size or bitrate, compare encodes that meet that goal. For quality-based encoding, adjust CRF as needed and compare resulting size and quality rather than assuming equal CRF means equal quality.
- Record size, time, and quality. Measure the complete output file, including audio. Note the exact FFmpeg version, encoder, preset, CRF or bitrate, source, and machine so that a result can be repeated and understood.
- Inspect the output. Compare the same scenes at normal viewing size and, where useful, frame-by-frame. Metrics can help spot differences, but they do not establish whether a person will notice or care about them.
- Repeat timing runs if speed matters. Obole encoded settings serially; most were repeated four times and intermediate CRFs twice. Size and measured quality were consistent, but elapsed time varied. For slow at CRF 23 on the synthetic source, reported runs ranged from 68.99 to 99.54 seconds, a 44% spread. Background activity and machine load can affect timing.
A starting command for a simple H.264 video
For the author’s simple-video use case, Obole gave this FFmpeg command:
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -preset veryfast
-pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a aac -b:a 128k -movflags +faststart output.mp4On the author’s material and ARM server, this produced a 1,873,445-byte file in 21.77–22.82 seconds. Treat those figures as results for that specific run, not a performance promise or best setting for other footage, systems, players, or workflows. Change the input and output filenames for your files, and test playback on the devices that matter to you.
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Account for audio and quality metrics
Video settings do not determine the whole file size. In the near-static test, the AAC audio track at 128 kb/s measured 875,130 bytes—42% of the CRF 23 output and 55% of the CRF 32 output. If audio stays unchanged, a percentage reduction in the picture stream will translate into a smaller percentage reduction in the complete file.
The test measured file size, wall-clock time, SSIM, and PSNR. VMAF was unavailable in the tested FFmpeg build, and the author did not perform a blind viewer test. SSIM and PSNR are objective comparisons, not proof that a difference is perceptible. Also, the synthetic source was itself an H.264 encode, so its reference image was already compressed.
Scope and correction to the published figures
Obole’s results cover one ARM server, FFmpeg 6.1.1-3ubuntu5, and libx264. They do not test x86 processors, GPUs, other codecs, real phone footage, or viewer-perceived quality. The article’s correction note says its earlier claim of a 43% picture-size reduction between CRF 23 and 32 was recalculated to 41.1% from the published byte counts; it also corrected the slow-preset comparisons to use medium as the baseline for both sources. The 0.16% and 2.17% figures above use that corrected baseline.
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