Warn for too large GIFs

[soshimee]

I just checked out Gifski, then I realized it wasn't working, so I tried the CLI version. CLI version worked fine, but Mac App Store one could barely process 64x64 sized videos.
Maybe related to Big Sur update?

[kornelski]

Does it apply to all videos, or only videos in a specific format?

Can you use Activity Monitor to create a spindump report of the app while it's processing?

[soshimee]

Dunno, can you give me some sample videos? I don't have that many videos so... The current video format that I'm using is mp4.

[fregante]

Just as another point: Today I tried converting a 12MB 720p MOV screencast on Big Sur and it suggested 4 minutes build time and >120MB output. I don't know if that's standard.

[kornelski]

Oh, that's totally expected. That's how the awful GIF format from 1989 works.

GIF was designed for "16p" animations. Throwing 720p content at it is pushing GIF to its limits, so expect it to be incredibly slow and unfathomably huge.

I suggest limiting HD-ish videos to very short clips, shorter than a second, or using very low resolution, like 128 pixels max.

Modern video codecs are many times faster and compress 10 or 20 times more efficiently than GIF, so expect the worst when going back in time.

[kornelski]

@sindresorhus Maybe the app could warn about creating overkill GIFs? Warn when resolution is >= 720p, and/or when the total size of all frames is huge.

[soshimee]

I'm fine with big outputs, but it takes HOURS to do that on the Mac app but takes only several minutes on the CLI app.

[sindresorhus]

@soshimee It did indeed get slower with Big Sur. Would you be able to share the 64x64 video with me? (You can send it privately too). Gifski was always slow with 720P video, but a 64x64 video should be no problem.