this post was submitted on 01 Jan 2026
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Programming

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When square pixels aren’t square (alexwlchan.net)
submitted 21 hours ago by cm0002@no.lastname.nz to c/programming@programming.dev
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[–] verstra@programming.dev 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Does anyone know why anyone would want to encode their video using PAR != 1? Reducing the file size, by storing less pixels in one dimension, but not the other?

[–] verstra@programming.dev 3 points 11 hours ago

Wikipedia to the rescue:

However, some formats (ex., HDV, DVCPRO HD) use non-square pixels internally for image storage, as a way to reduce the amount of data that must be processed, thus limiting the necessary transfer rates and maintaining compatibility with existing interfaces.

Actual displays do not generally have non-square pixels, though digital sensors might;

TLDR; some formats use non-square pixels for reducing file size, some digital sensors has non-square pixels.