Other Question about Settings > Photos > Transfer to Mac or PC

[no0nefamous]

So, in the iOS Camera settings, you can choose your format: either "High Efficiency" (HEIF/HEVC) or "Most Compatible" (JPEG/H.24). I use High Efficiency because it saves space and looks just as good and Windows supports them with an extension now.

But, over in the Photos settings, under "Transfer to Mac or PC" you can choose "Automatic" - which will convert the photos to JPEG and videos to H.264 if they were in the High Efficiency format when transferring to PC, or "Keep Originals", which leaves them as is.

My question is - when you chose Automatic, it converts your HEIF photos instantly to JPEG. All of them. How does it do this?? They even change file size!

 

[now i see it]

Mystery

 

[Shirasaki]

No? They don’t “instantly” change files to JPEG the moment you flip that switch. What it does is converting files on the fly the moment it detects anything that is not supported mac or iOS device being connected. Both HEIC and JPG are lossy format, and require very little processing power to do it.

 

[no0nefamous]

No? They don’t “instantly” change files to JPEG the moment you flip that switch. What it does is converting files on the fly the moment it detects anything that is not supported mac or iOS device being connected. Both HEIC and JPG are lossy format, and require very little processing power to do it.

If they are HEIF photos on your phone, they will instantly read as JPEGs the very second you connect them to windows and look at them. I don't understand how it can convert the entire library on the fly like that instantly.

 

[Shirasaki]

If they are HEIF photos on your phone, they will instantly read as JPEGs the very second you connect them to windows and look at them. I don't understand how it can convert the entire library on the fly like that instantly.

They don’t. I repeat. They don’t. Windows PC cannot control how Apple reports back which file is which format, as photo storage doesn’t follow the same protocols like USB drive. It’s impossible even for Apple to “instantly” convert your entire library to JPEG on the fly.

Think of it from another angle. If Apple really do this, then why they can still send HEIC file to your Mac or sth rather than JPEG? Did they somehow store two versions of the file on your iPhone or sth without doubling the storage consumption?

 

[no0nefamous]

I'm not sure if you understanding what I'm asking, or you haven't actually experimented with this.

Connect to Mac - the image files are HEIF.
Connect to PC - the same image files are .JPEG and they show up as such instantly with no processing.

I'm trying to understand how and why this is.

 

[Shirasaki]

I'm not sure if you understanding what I'm asking, or you haven't actually experimented with this.

Connect to Mac - the image files are HEIF.
Connect to PC - the same image files are .JPEG and they show up as such instantly with no processing.

I'm trying to understand how and why this is.

……

High Efficiency Image File Format - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Here is the Wikipedia page for your interest.
To put it simply, HEIC compresses the original image data better than usual JPEG file, talking up half of the space. It’s still lossy, just more efficient.
If you still want to know why, Google it.

 

[no0nefamous]

Okay... I think I understand now. Basically, the coding in HEIF files enables them to be also read as JPEGs without any conversion? By conversion I mean, for instance, converting a .PNG image to .JPEG.

 

[Shirasaki]

Okay... I think I understand now. Basically, the coding in HEIF files enables them to be also read as JPEGs without any conversion? By conversion I mean, for instance, converting a .PNG image to .JPEG.

No? There is no “conversion”, or at least not something most customer know about, like converting avi to wmv or sth. The data is still represented in fundamentally the same way. Think of it as unpacking a zip file vs packing as a zip file.

HEIC and jpeg is not the same “thing” but underlying data is largely the same if that makes sense.

 

[no0nefamous]

No? There is no “conversion”, or at least not something most customer know about, like converting avi to wmv or sth. The data is still represented in fundamentally the same way. Think of it as unpacking a zip file vs packing as a zip file.

HEIC and jpeg is not the same “thing” but underlying data is largely the same if that makes sense.

Okay, that makes sense. Thanks! Sorry it took me a while, lol.

 

[torontocomfortzone]

Use bluetooth to send photos ....
Joking

but no, it wornt work