It is a case of digital obesity—a file that has grown in size without gaining any muscle.
by Schatz, R., Egi, H., & Wernikoff, M. (2017) bloat 480p
You're looking for information on "bloat" in the context of video encoding, specifically at 480p resolution. A relevant and useful paper on this topic could be: It is a case of digital obesity—a file
Much of this bloat originates from the transition from physical media to digital streaming. In the early days of the internet, many videos were encoded from VHS tapes or low-quality broadcasts. These sources were noisy. They contained static, tape hiss, and visual grain. A relevant and useful paper on this topic
To understand "bloat," one must understand video compression. Ideally, a video file should be lean. A standard 480p video (720x480 pixels), when encoded efficiently using modern codecs like H.264 or H.265, should result in a relatively small file—typically between 300MB to 700MB for a full-length film.
The Persistence of Bloat: Analyzing the Inefficiencies of the 480p Standard in a High-Definition Ecosystem
: Older compression formats like MPEG-2 (used in DVDs) or early versions of H.264 are less efficient than modern standards like H.265 (HEVC) or AV1 . A 480p video encoded with an outdated codec can easily exceed the size of a well-compressed 720p video.