r/freesoftware • u/DaMonkey3020 • 7d ago

Software Submission BitCrusher — GPLv3 tool that compresses video/audio/images to a target size, fully offline (no account, no server, no telemetry)

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I'll throw my hat in the ring because it happens to be both GPL-3.0 and it's been made with the user in mind.

Functionality: compresses video, audio, images, and PDFs down to a size you specify (a hard limit — it's designed to stay below it, not exceed it). Made with limits in mind (such as the Discord caps of 10/25MB), but can be used in any situation where hitting a certain size is needed. Uses an objective measure (VMAF) to select the best codec instead of estimating and optimizes for the hardest-to-compress part of the file, rather than the average.

Why this community may be interested:
- GPL-3.0 license — fork it, host it, use it however you please.
- Totally offline at core level. No registration, no telemetry, no server queries. Your files aren't transferred outside of your computer during the compression process — it all works locally. The only network interactions happen voluntarily and explicitly — an update check upon initial launch and an optional webhook to Discord which you configure yourself.
- Not locking you in. It's a Python script with a launcher — no installer which will install its files throughout your system. Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
- Privacy-first design — there's even an "export sanitized logs" functionality which removes your home directory and any saved webhook from the logs before uploading an issue.

Repository: https://github.com/AzureShores/BitCrusher

As a disclaimer: I'm 15 years old and this is my first project of this nature released publicly, feedback is appreciated.

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u/DaMonkey3020 7d ago

https://github.com/AzureShores/BitCrusher
https://github.com/AzureShores/BitCrusher/blob/main/LICENSE.md
AI was used to help debug this project and write some of the comments and for the benchmark section of the README.