Video Transcoding

1. Overview - Meaning of Transcoding, How it works, Key benefits of Transcoding, Why

Transcoding is needed.
● Terminologies used - Transmuxing, Transrating
2. Features of Transcoding - Key Features in detailed information
3.What is Codec.? How does Codec work.? Most prominent codecs.?
4. What are some of the most prominent containers/Formats?
5. Pricing - Various types of pricing for different resolutions.
6. How to get started with Transcoding - How to get started in steps
7. FAQ’s
8. Conclusion - With our product and services information and contact details.

Text with pink color - Compiled keywords

Online Streaming media is trending and everyone is getting on board to OTT platforms.
As per the standard reports, it is predicted that there will be more bytes of data
consumed on online platforms. It is expected that there will be more bytes of data
consumed in online streaming media, So we can easily say that there will be huge
demand and growth for streaming platforms.

If you're into online streaming media, You might be well aware of video transcoding in
OTT platforms or you might be wondering that video transcoding is crucially important
in processing the content. Continue below to get more details about video Transcoding
and the complete process in video encoding. This is significant if you need to deliver
online streaming video to different varieties of devices.
What is Transcoding.?

It is a process of converting a file(Audio or Video) from one encoding format, resolutions,

bitrates to other formats, resolutions, bitrates. This process will help to increase the
number of appropriate target devices a media can be played on.

Many times encoding and transcoding are used comparably, but these two processes,
even though closely related, are different.

Encoding is a process of compressing a file (Video and Audio) to be appropriate with a

single target device, Transcoding contrarily allows for already encoded data to be
converted to another encoding format. This Transcoding process is especially useful
when users use numerous target devices like differently configured mobile devices and
web browsers, which do not support the same native formats or particular devices have
limited storage capacity.

Encoding is a casually lossy process, which means that it brings about a certain amount
of data to be abandoned and ultimately decreases audio and video quality. Encoding can
use lossless compression, but it results in decreased compression rates and increased
media file sizes.

There are three types of transcoding:

1. Lossy-to-lossy - This is the least perfect form of transcoding. It means you
already have a file with reduced quality and transcoding causes the quality to
degrade even further. The only reason to use this form of transcoding is to reduce
the bitrate and save storage space on compact players.

2. Lossless-to-lossless - By taking advantage of better compression and hardware

support a file can be losslessly compressed. This type of transcoding is useful for
converting to new formats without losing quality, but the resulting files are often
too large to send to portable devices.

3. Lossless-to-lossy - This transcoding method causes less quality loss than lossy-
to-lossy and produces file sizes small enough for compact devices. You must
maintain archives of losslessly compressed files to truly leverage this transcoding
method.

There is no such thing as lossy-to-lossless transcoding. Once data and quality have been
lost during the encoding or transcoding process they cannot be regained.

How does Transcoding Works.?

We should never confuse Transcoding and Encoding with repackaging which only
converts the container format such as Moving Picture (MPEG) and Flash Video Files
(FLV). On the other side, video and audio files are compressed by codecs for example
VP9 and H.264. Although similar to Transmuxing, Transcoding can be done using
FFmpeg is popular with a complete, cross-platform solution to record, convert and
stream audio and video. Converting any media files to a standard H.264 mp4 can be
done with a simple command:

FFmpeg -i "sourceVid.mov" "transcodedVid.mp4"

With this command, the source video will be reformatted to an MP4 file using H.264
codec. The result is normally multiple video versions, with different bitrates, resolutions,
and/or formats (like MP4 and MPEG2, WEBM).
Why is Transcoding important.?

1. Adaptive Bitrate Streaming (ABR) - While using a format like HLS, this allows the
media player to dynamically switch between video sources depending on the
watcher’s internet connection and type of device. E.g. changing between, 1080p
and 720p versions of the video stream.

2. Reduced Bandwidth Requirements - Transcoding allows you to generate various

video sources required for ABR from single video input. This is great for people
live streaming from environments with limited upload speeds.

3. Custom Transcodes for Different Destinations - When live streaming to multiple

platforms, there are some which have different video input requirements. So
custom transcoding can be done for that particular destination only.

4. Flexibility to Support Multiple Formats - Transcoding allows you to re-encode

your media stream into multiple formats like MP4, WEBM. You might want to do
this if you’re streaming to a range of devices that only support certain formats.

5. Generating Device/Player-Playable Content - Source media files are generated

by many kinds of tools and devices – professional studio authoring tools, mobile
or other cameras, webcams, desktop transcoders, grabbing devices, etc. Each one
of those has a different purpose and a different ‘native’ output format (or codecs).
So for the video files to be viewable for most users, you have to transcode those
sources into something that you can deliver and play.

6. Matching Delivery Mode Requirements - Matching the delivery mode

requirements to particular constraints which are specific for few models, the
keyframes in all ABR assets must be aligned to the same timing

7. Reducing Customer Storage - Usually, the source files are typically much larger
than the encoded files. Sometimes you can choose to delete the sources after
encoding files, which helps in maintaining storage space
Multiple features of Transcoding

● Instant and continuous online previewing of media content during the encoding
process.
● If effect with zero delays between the start of ingesting and streaming which
allows for near-simultaneous streaming of live events
● Separate files for audio, video, and subtitles for fully flexible and 75-80% storage
cost reduction in some scenarios and also reduces distribution costs.
● Flexibility in terms of input as well as output format, protocol, storage, CDN
● RESTful API for integration into proprietary workflows as well as large sets of
assets
● Supported formats and devices

Few different terminologies used regarding video transcoder and encoding are as follows
● Transmuxing - It is a process of conversion of different container format without
changing the file itself
● Transrating - It is a process of converting to a different video bitrate using the
same file format.

In 1998 digital audio started and new video formats have been developed every year in
an attempt to provide improvements in quality, file size, and video playback, the
popularity of video continues to grow rapidly with 75% of people watching at least 1
video online in one of the devices in a single day. However, video formats and how it
works are still a subject of much confusion for most people. Whether you need to
convert video files and play in a specific browser or device, we will provide you details
about Popular Video formats, Codecs, and Containers below.

Video Formats - Usually people refer to file extension (videofile.mp4) Some formats
consist of a combination of files, folders, and even playlists. All of these are needed for a
video to play properly. To understand better video format we shall take one specific
video file and understand how all its parts work together to display a video that you see
on your screen.

File extension videofile.mp4 is called a container for a video file that contains all of the
files that are need to play a specific video, these files in a container include Video
Stream, Audio Stream & Metadata, Video stream files tell the player what needs to
appear on the screen, Audio file stream tells the player which sound needs to be played
alongside the video. The metadata means data about data that includes all the
information about the video, which includes bitrate, device, resolution, time of creations,
subtitles, and more. One of the important pieces of metadata is called Codec.

What is codec.?
A video codec is any type of system that compresses a video file, An application/device
which only compresses a cognate file is called an encoder/decoder, while an
application/device that only decompresses a compressed digital media file to cognate is
a decoder. The word ‘codec’ comes out of the succession of the two terms encoding and
decoding.

List of all codecs.

● Audio Codecs
○ AAC - Advanced Audio Codec generally provides the best audio quality, at
the same bitrate as MP3 or comparable quality at lower bitrates.
○ MP3 - Moving Picture Experts Group Layer-3 Audio, is the most popular
audio codecs. This type of audio file uses lossy compression, where audio
gets compacted drastically.
 ○ Opus - Opus is an open, royalty-free, highly versatile audio codec. Opus is
unmatched for interactive speech and music transmission over the Internet
but is also intended for storage and streaming applications.

● Video Codecs

○ HEVC/H.265 - HEVC is also called H.265, it is mostly the preferred codec.

It gives very perfect compression which is specially designed for 4K video
streaming. This type of codec gives high-quality video with relatively small
file sizes.
○ H.264 - This type of codec is standard for video streaming for quite some
time. This type of codec is primarily developed for BlueRay Disc, but later
this was used all across players and streamers. This codec offers good
image quality and perfect compression. But this codec is not as powerful &
newer as H.265.
○ VP9 - VP9 is a video codec technology developed by Google. VP9 is an
open-source technology and is free from royalty fees. The VP9 codec is
mostly used for streaming videos over the Internet and claims to reduce
the bit rate of video transmissions by 50% while maintaining high quality.
○ AV1 - It is an open, royalty-free video coding format initially designed for
video transmissions over the Internet. It was developed as a successor to
VP9 by the Alliance for Open Media, a consortium founded in 2015 that
includes semiconductor firms, video on demand providers, video content
producers, software development companies, and web browser vendors.

How do codecs work?

Frames need to be compressed for any codecs to work properly, Basically, there are two
types of frame compressions one is intra-frame compression and the other is inter-
frame compression.

In Intra-frame compression, each frame will be compressed independently of the

adjacent frames. Hence this compression is primarily image compression applied to video
files.
The Inter-frame compression process identifies repetitions across frames to compress
video files. It includes any components of the moving image fixed, i.e. a static
background in an only talking video file. Hence Inter-frame compression is much more
productive than Intra-frame compression. So most of the codecs are optimized to find
repetitions across frames.
How is a media file format distinct from a codec?
A file format is like a type of container. Inside that particular container, the data has been
compressed by using a particular codec.

● MP4 - MP4 is a digital multimedia container format most commonly used to store
video and audio, but it can also be used to store other data such as subtitles and
still images. Like most modern container formats, it allows streaming over the
Internet.
● MP2 - (MPEG-1 Audio Layer II) An audio compression technology that is part of
the MPEG-1 standard. Used in earlier Video CDs as well as digital broadcasting
outside the U.S., MP2 provided the foundation for the widely used MP3 format.
● WEBM - This Is an audiovisual media file format. It is primarily intended to offer a
royalty-free alternative to use in the HTML5 video and the HTML5 audio
elements.
● MATROSKA - The Matroska Multimedia Container is a free, open standard
container format, a file format that can hold an unlimited number of video, audio,
picture, or subtitle tracks in one file.

Video Transcoding Software Pricing?

The pricing for video transcoding service can be set as per few parameters like, pay only
for what you use and there will be no minimum fees. Charges will be based on a simple
fee for a minute of video in each output. Another type of pricing is reticent pricing
where one or more reserved transcode slots for a fixed monthly charge with a minimum
commitment, each slot runs a single job at a time with all available encoding features.

The price will be varying based on the type of resolutions, type of codec used, number of
frames per second(fps).

Various types of resolutions that can be supported are SD, HD, 4K, 8K.

● SD - It is an output of less than 720 resolution or 1280×720 px.

● HD - It Is the output greater than or equal to 720 resolution or 1280×720 px but
less than or equal to 1080 resolution or 1920 x 1080 px.
● 4K - It is an output of greater than 1080 resolution or 1920 x 1080 px, but less
than or equal to 2160 resolution or 3840 × 2160 px.
● 8K - It is an output of greater than 2160 resolution or 3840 × 2160 px, up to and
including 4320 resolution or 7680 × 4320 px.
Additional charges and additional functionalities are applicable i.e. for Audio Only, Dolby
Audio, Audio Normalization, Watermarking, Dolby Vision, FrameFormer Frame Rate Conversion,
Audio Normalization.

How to get started with Transcoding

● Sign up for an account

● Create profile
● Upload content
● Create pipeline
● Select Encoding
● Create job - Transcode
● Package
● Distribute
● Monitor the progress of the job

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is Video Transcoding?

It is a process of converting a video or audio file from one encoding format into
another or from one resolution, bitrate to other resolutions, bitrate format to
enhance the number of compatible target devices a media file can be played on.

2. Does Transcoding reduce the quality of files?

Yes, every transcoding reduces quality, some codecs are visual losses.

3. What is the difference between Encoding and Transcoding?

Encoding is when you have an audio or video uncompressed file and turning it
into some other type of file format is called encoding and Transcoding is when
you have a compressed video or audio file and converting it into some other type
of file format is called Transcoding.

Are you looking for a Transcoding Video?

We have an on-demand Transcoding service called VTRANSCODE - Which is on-
demand Video Transcoding - Scalable, reliable enterprise-grade ultrafast transcoding up
to 4K on the cloud.

Our Transcoding process

Key features of our Video Transcoding application are.

● Massively Parallel ultra-fast transcoding at SD, HD, 4K resolutions
● Poster/Trailer auto-generation, SubTitle Burn-In, and Watermarking Support
● H.264, H.265/HEVC and VP9 Video Codec and AAC, AC3 Audio Codec Output
● Multiple transcoding profiles and easily configurable encodings
● Workflow integration with vDRM Multi DRM and Packaging Service
● Cloud Video Transcoding Service
● Cloud encoding service
● Hourly, Quality wise metering, billing, and reports
● Scalable and Reliable SAAS built on AWS cloud and Lambda
● 24x7 maintenance and monitoring

For more information about our product and services please feel free to get in
touch with us

Call us at 9620209869, or write an email to the sales@mobiotics.com