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  "description": "The core ideas behind media encoding, and the order to read them in.",
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  "markdown": "Encoding turns audio, video and images into a compact form for storage and delivery, and decoding\nturns it back into something you can watch or hear. Nearly every practical decision is a trade\nbetween quality, file size, encoding time and compatibility.\n\nRead these pages in order if you are new:\n\n1. [Encoding basics](/start-here/encoding-basics/): what codecs, encoders and containers are.\n2. [Terminology](/start-here/terminology/): the words you will see everywhere else on this wiki.\n3. [Lossless compression](/start-here/lossless/): how data shrinks without losing anything.\n4. [Lossy compression](/start-here/lossy/): where information is thrown away, and why it can still\n   look and sound right.\n5. [Psychovisual encoding](/start-here/psychovisual/): why encoders optimize for what people see,\n   not for simple error measures.\n6. [Video artifacts](/start-here/video-artifacts/): recognizing blocking, banding, ringing and other\n   compression damage.\n7. [High dynamic range](/start-here/high-dynamic-range/): PQ, HLG, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision.\n\nWhen you are ready to encode something, continue with the [guides](/guides/), starting with\n[a first FFmpeg encode](/guides/first-ffmpeg-encode/).\n"
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