Okay well I looked into it and it turns out that just disabling the dispose
background operation for non alpha formats just fixes the issue and
produces a 504kb APNG  that is correct with no gray bars  (currently ffmpeg
produces a broken 503kb one) now reading the spec it does say "

   - APNG_DISPOSE_OP_BACKGROUND: the frame's region of the output buffer is
   to be cleared to fully transparent black before rendering the next frame."
   and we don't have transparency in non alpha formats


On Mon, Jan 5, 2026 at 6:13 PM Michael Niedermayer via ffmpeg-devel <
ffmpeg-devel@ffmpeg.org> wrote:

>
> On Fri, Jan 02, 2026 at 01:29:32PM +0200, Hassan Hany via ffmpeg-devel
> wrote:
> > From: "U-DESKTOP-70DF2U5\\GIGABYT" <hassanhanyrashad@gmail.com>
> >
> > Delta frame optimization in APNG encoder caused gray bars for RGB24
> frames.
> > This patch disables delta optimization for non-alpha frames, ensuring
> correct
> > rendering. Delta optimization is preserved for RGBA frames.
> >
> > Fixes: trac Ticket #9602
> >
> > Signed-off-by: U-DESKTOP-70DF2U5\GIGABYT <hassanhanyrashad@gmail.com>
> > ---
> > This bug caused visible artifacts such as gray bars in non-alpha
> > pixel formats such as RGB24 or GRAY. This patch disabled delta frame
> > optimization only for non alpha channels. the output size increased
> > from 512kb to 1.1mb on the test sample but correctness was restored
> > and the relevant APNG FATE tests were ran and no regression occurred
> >  libavcodec/pngenc.c | 15 ++++++++++++++-
> >  1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> >
> > diff --git a/libavcodec/pngenc.c b/libavcodec/pngenc.c
> > index e627bf83fc..3e46363b00 100644
> > --- a/libavcodec/pngenc.c
> > +++ b/libavcodec/pngenc.c
> > @@ -39,7 +39,7 @@
> >  #include "libavutil/opt.h"
> >  #include "libavutil/rational.h"
> >  #include "libavutil/stereo3d.h"
> > -
> > +#include "libavutil/pixdesc.h"
> >  #include <zlib.h>
> >
> >  #define IOBUF_SIZE 4096
> > @@ -894,6 +894,19 @@ static int apng_encode_frame(AVCodecContext *avctx,
> const AVFrame *pict,
> >          best_fctl_chunk->blend_op = APNG_BLEND_OP_SOURCE;
> >          return encode_frame(avctx, pict);
> >      }
> > +
> > +    const AVPixFmtDescriptor *desc = av_pix_fmt_desc_get(pict->format);
> > +
> > +    if(!(desc->flags & AV_PIX_FMT_FLAG_ALPHA)){
> > +         best_fctl_chunk->width = pict->width;
> > +         best_fctl_chunk->height = pict->height;
> > +         best_fctl_chunk->x_offset = 0;
> > +         best_fctl_chunk->y_offset = 0;
> > +         best_fctl_chunk->blend_op = APNG_BLEND_OP_SOURCE;
> > +         best_fctl_chunk->dispose_op = APNG_DISPOSE_OP_NONE;
> > +          return encode_frame(avctx, pict);
> > +         }
> > +
>
> This looks like a hack not like a bugfix
> besides the indention is wrong and there are tabs
>
> thx
>
> [...]
> --
> Michael     GnuPG fingerprint: 9FF2128B147EF6730BADF133611EC787040B0FAB
>
> If the United States is serious about tackling the national security
> threats
> related to an insecure 5G network, it needs to rethink the extent to which
> it
> values corporate profits and government espionage over security.-Bruce
> Schneier
> _______________________________________________
> ffmpeg-devel mailing list -- ffmpeg-devel@ffmpeg.org
> To unsubscribe send an email to ffmpeg-devel-leave@ffmpeg.org
>