A faq about the little known Uha format, the next greatest thing in file compression. - Overclock.net

Licht · 10-29-07

To start I would like to catch you up to speed on the Uha format, a very little known but extremely powerful compression format.

UHarc was created by Uwe Herklotz, with his latest update occurring October 1st, 2005. (Abandoned, yet powerful child.) Current version is .06b, it seems it was abandoned while still in development. Anyone interested in the program can follow this link. http://www.softpedia.com/progDownloa...load-5766.html

Screen shot of the uharc GUI linked to above :

To clarify, this example is given for the (sorry, may be the incorrect term) benchmarks.

Format (by extension) - Size after compression - Ratio - Dictionary size

Ok, lets start the compressing. I took 3 music files (to be unnamed.) A total of 18mb of data in the MP3 format to compress by ZIP, RAR, and UHA. (Take note all UHARC compressions are using ALZ max compression algorithm and a dictionary size of 4mb unless stated otherwise. Rar is using max compression. And ZIP is standard.)

UHA - 17.9 MB (18,788,876 bytes) - 0.989
RAR - 17.9 MB (18,846,966 bytes) - 0.989
ZIP - 17.9 MB (18,849,244 bytes) - 0.989
7Z - 18.0 MB (18,896,209 bytes) - 1.000

To be fair, this was a small file that wouldn't normally be compressed at all. Either way UHA won, although be it a small margin.

Video files. 80.8Mb (across 24 minutes) of MP4 format data. This particular video has remarkable compression as it is.

UHA - 79.2 MB (83,068,520 bytes) - 0.980
RAR - 79.6 MB (83,562,732 bytes) - 0.985
7Z - 79.8 MB (83,742,124 bytes) - 0.987
ZIP - 79.9 MB (83,784,258 bytes) - 0.988

Next up, high quality, 464MB (across 1 hour 44 minutes 55 seconds) AVI format video. Larger, where UHarc should shine. A 32MB dictionary was used in this test.

UHA - 457 MB (480,185,870 bytes) - 0.984 - 32MB Dictionary
UHA - 458 MB (480,252,591 bytes) - 0.987 - 4MB Dictionary
RAR - 459 MB (481,739,828 bytes) - 0.989
ZIP - 459 MB (482,316,048 bytes) - 0.989
7Z - 463 MB (485,952,378 bytes) -

Onto text files. Lets use the readme for CPU-Z! (11KB)

RAR - 2.93 KB (3,004 bytes) - 0.266
UHA - 3.31 KB (3,390 bytes) - 0.300
7Z - 3.43 KB (3,514 bytes) - 0.311
ZIP - 3.54 KB (3,630 bytes) - 0.321

RAR wins, this is a result of the smaller dictionaries in RAR files compared to UHA files. (Uha files have a maximum dictionary size of 32MB, RAR uses only 8MB max.)

48 pictures, 32MB. All JPEG format.

UHA - 29.3 MB (30,789,957 bytes) - 0.915
7Z - 29.6 MB (31,067,043 bytes) - 0.925
RAR - 31.0 MB (32,602,505 bytes) - 0.968
ZIP - 31.4 MB (32,997,926 bytes) - 0.981

I cannot help but think looking over the numbers that in larger files where file compression is more critical (take files over 500mb, that are uncompressed such as installers) that uHarc is more efficient. A great new compression tool, given people moved to RAR even though in these tests we see even smaller difference between RAR-ZIP then UHA-RAR. I see UHA is a format that could very well catch on in the future, assuming it is ever finished and perfected. As well as popularized, this faq was to help some people learn about the new compression tool and spread the word. Please give your imput as well, as to point out any mistakes i may have made that would allow better compression ratio on any of the formats.

**Krunk_Kracker** · 10-29-07

Awesome.

Rep+

dskina · 10-30-07

How does it compare to 7zip?

Firestorm252 · 10-30-07

Quote:

Originally Posted by dskina

How does it compare to 7zip?

you read my mind. add me to the list of inquiring minds

t4ct1c47 · 10-30-07

Well done, a well written guide. Its nice to see guide's that haven't been copied and pasted from the internet.

Rep +1

Licht · 10-30-07

Quote:

Originally Posted by dskina

How does it compare to 7zip?

I'll test that soon since you and another want to see. (Tonight at the latest.)

Now includes 7Z format in the comparisons, take note UHA beat it in every test.

dskina · 10-30-07

Very informative. Rep up

xenophobe · 10-31-07

Sorry, but don't really care anymore. The days of compression wars are meaningless and over now in the massive gigabit internet and gigabyte hard drives, DVDs and even CDR's.

ZIP and RAR are the winners. Use anything else, and people don't know what to do with them.

G|F.E.A.D|Killa · 10-31-07

i kinda have a problem using a compression program that was stoped in the development stage. something is bound to go wrong.

Licht · 10-31-07

Quote:

Originally Posted by xenophobe

Sorry, but don't really care anymore. The days of compression wars are meaningless and over now in the massive gigabit internet and gigabyte hard drives, DVDs and even CDR's.

ZIP and RAR are the winners. Use anything else, and people don't know what to do with them.

UHA can include self extracting archives, no need to worry about compatibility. If thats what you are thinking.

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A faq about the little known Uha format, the next greatest thing in file compression.

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