Is SheerVideo as accurate as PNG?
Yes. SheerVideo is every bit as accurate as Apple’s PNG codec: Both codecs are perfectly accurate. Note, however, that the PNG codec, which works by string-match coding, optionally lets you reduce the precision of the image before encoding it, which degrades the image. SheerVideo always encodes at full precision (8 bits per channel), so it never degrades the image. However, SheerVideo encodes 60 times faster than PNG, and decodes nearly 6 times as fast. Moreover, SheerVideo is 20% more powerful than PNG for real-world imagery. And SheerVideo also supports native video formats, which PNG doesn’t. On the other hand, PNG supports low-quality image formats such as indexed-color and tends to be much more powerful for poster-quality images such as title screens and animations.
