The Importance of Lossless Media: REMUX and FLAC
Discover why making the switch to lossless media can elevate your viewing and listening experience.
Last updated
Discover why making the switch to lossless media can elevate your viewing and listening experience.
Last updated
Making the switch to lossless media can elevate your viewing and listening experience. I used to think I didn’t need the best quality version of a movie or an album. A good 1080p encode, a high-bitrate MP3, that was fine, right? But recently, a friend introduced me to the world of REMUX files, and it completely shifted my perspective. Now, if I really love a movie, I won’t even consider watching it unless it’s the full 4K UHD REMUX with Dolby 7.1 or better. I’ve crossed over. There's no going back.
The same is starting to apply to music. I’m now in the process of replacing my entire collection with FLAC-level audio. And the funny thing is, this upgrade isn’t as difficult as it used to be. My iPhone has more storage than I ever expected to need. I’ve got terabytes of hard drives lying around. Storage is no longer the limiting factor, my standards are.
What pushed me over the edge was watching a replay of Crimzon Clover World EXplosion gameplay on YouTube. I had uploaded it in 4K at 60fps, using a high bitrate, but it still didn’t look the same as when I was playing it directly on my TV. The particles, the movement, the glow, it all felt a bit crushed. That’s when it hit me: YouTube’s compression, especially in games with tons of visual effects like those made in UE5, is a real problem. If someone’s deciding whether to buy a game based on a video that’s full of compression artifacts, they’re not seeing the actual experience.
When I first started dabbling in lossless formats, I assumed the improvement would be around 5–10%. Nice, but not enough to justify the hassle. But now that I’ve really leaned into it, I’d say it’s closer to a 25–30% improvement, which is huge. That’s not a tweak, that’s like watching something you already loved get a facelift. It’s the difference between “I liked this” and “I felt this.”
I recently picked up a Logitech Z263 speaker system. Nothing professional, just solid consumer-grade gear. Even that small upgrade made a surprising difference. Dialogue is clearer, bass has more punch, and the overall experience feels tighter and more cinematic. It's little things like this that compound the impact of lossless media and help you appreciate the full range of sound designers and composers worked so hard to craft.
Some of my favorite REMUX watches so far have been Star Wars (especially Episode III), Inception (2010), and Heat (1995). Watching Star Wars in REMUX felt like seeing it for the first time again. I could see every little crease on the droids, every micro-detail on the ships. The stars and ships didn’t just look movie-quality, they looked real. Like actual stars and actual ships. It wasn’t “a movie with stars and ships” anymore, it was so high quality I actually felt like I was looking at stars and ships. Hearing the thundering orchestral score in Star Wars as Yoda and Palpatine clashed — with the fate of the galaxy hanging from a thread was nothing short of epic. In lossless audio, every note, swell, and impact hit with a weight that standard formats just couldn’t deliver.
Lossless media isn't just geeking out over specs; it’s about respecting the art. If this article even convinces one person to give it a try then my work here is done.
