According to Christophor Rick, a reporter with ReelSEO.com, he was a bit skeptical when it came to whether the HD video compression service from Raystream could really do what the company claimed it could do – dramatically decrease the file size of high definition (HD) videos up to 90 percent, with an average of approximately 70 percent, with no loss in the quality or crystal clarity for which HD video is known.

In order to satisfy his own quest for the truth and to definitively answer the questions of his readers, Rick took what he called a “massive in-depth look” at Raystream’s proprietary video compression technology. Raystream is a provider of proprietary video compression technology to businesses and consumers worldwide.

“I sent them a 271MB video file and asked them to do that voodoo that they do to it and send it back,” Rick writes.

“I've loaded up the original and the Raystream versions of the files and played them for friends and family and asked them to pick which was which. I've nabbed some frames from the videos and compared them in quality,” he said.

When he first started this project, Rick noted that he could barely tell the difference. He also stated that others were equally impressed with the quality of the transcode and about 50 percent picked the Raystream version as the original.

Moreover, in keeping with his scientific investigation, Rick attempted to recreate and compare Raystream’s compression with other compression tools.

Rick writes that using other compression tools, he was able to match their file size fairly closely. With Raystream’s compression, he says, “It took some time for me to find some appreciable data loss.”

“Raystream crushed my transcodes even when I doubled up the bitrate,” Rick writes, adding that the level of detail in theirs compared to even what he managed is amazing.

Raystream is able to give great quality for a fraction of the file size, which means far less file storage space and far less bandwidth to stream that video, and also means that mobile video could be improved drastically and quality improved as well, according to Rick.

Earlier in December, Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, said that with streaming video on the way to becoming mainstream, Level 3 Communications and Raystream figure prominently in the streaming market and are all set to become key players.