Using video compression software, one user was able to copy the full version of the Shrek movie to a floppy disk and play it using a Raspberry Pi computer.
A Reddit user has created a custom x256 codec for video compression, which reduces video quality to a resolution of 120×96 pixels at 4 frames per second. With the help of this codec, he was able to increase the size of the 90-minute movie of Shrek to 1.37 MB and copy it to a floppy disk with a capacity of 1.44 MB or about 0.3% of the capacity of a regular DVD with a size of 4.7 GB.
Using a floppy drive and a Raspberry Pi computer, the user created a home video player that displays a dedicated logo while booting, like game consoles. It starts automatically after inserting a floppy into the video player, just like old VHS players.
As you can see, due to over-compression, the audio and video quality is severely reduced and the user feels like watching a low-quality gif file, but the user’s creativity in placing a complete movie on a floppy whose technology dates back to the 70’s. It turns out to be admirable and shows the tremendous human progress in the production of storage devices and reaching from just 1.44 MB to external hard drives in capacities of several million MB.
Until a few years ago, 700 MB CDs were a revolution in storage, then a regular 4.7 GB DVD and a dual 10 GB DVD made it easier for us to store data, and now Blu-ray Discs. According to Ray, the one-layer and two-layer models have a capacity of 25 and 50 GB, respectively.