[gdal-dev] gdal_merge vs gdal_translate for reducing resolution

[Adam Nowacki]

> I have tried running both gdal_merge and gdal_translate for reducing the 
> resolution of individual tiles and I have found that both the data 
> quality and speed for the conversion are identical.  Since everything is 
> identical is their any reason to prefer one program over the other for 
> reducing resolution?

Both do equally bad at reducing resolution since both use nearest 
neighbor sampling. gdalwarp with bilinear resampler might do better but 
I would suggest using gdaladdo with average filter instead.