Imgur Converts Animated GIF Files To MP4 Videos With GIFV Format

The Imgur site for hosting images and videos on the web is doing impressive work on the old GIF image standard. The looping GIF video format is being changed to use the benefits afforded by the MP4 video format with its improved quality and compression levels while maintaining image quality levels at the same time.

Imgur is taking it upon themselves to convert any GIF video format to their new GIFV video format using MP4 to compress previously large videos into smaller containers. A 50MB video file in original GIF video format can be shrunk down to 3.4MB in their new GIFV video format. For visitors to imgur on slower fiber optic or cellular connections this will be a welcome improvement.

The new video files can be added to social media sites and will display correctly too. Further optimization has been attempted to help imgur users access video files over cellular connections more quickly too. The site is changing its policies on GIF video uploads to raise the upload limit from 5MB to 50MB which with the far smaller file size possibilities of the new video standard will make it easier to upload quality video GIFs and stay within the file limits when doing so.

In social media channels, the video GIFs will animate beautifully as well. So viewers can share and see their GIF videos on Facebook and Twitter member pages as well.

The team at imgur hope that the new .GIFV extension will suggest to users globally that these are MP4 files that have been converted. Internet standards organizations are expected to receive specification for the new standard before the end of the year. Video players on PC, Mac, Linux and mobile platforms will now need to be updated so that they understand what the GIFV video format is and how to play it properly. Happy viewing.