This whitepaper, sponsored by Dolby/Hybrik, tracks cloud encoding pricing for H.264 and HEVC output and reveals dramatic price differences among popular services. I’ve just completed a whitepaper sponsored by Dolby/Hybrik to compare pricing for multiples of one hour of H.264 and HEVC encoding using the recommended encoding ladders in the Apple HLS Authoring Specifications. You can download the whitepaper here. …

This article analyzes the codecs used by YouTube for 4K videos with millions of views, and the savings that AV1 and VP9 deliver over YouTube’s full encoding ladder.  This is the third in a series of articles written about which codecs YouTube uses. The first covers which codecs YouTube uses for high-volume 1080p videos. The second covers the codecs used …

This post describes how to formulate the optimal encoding ladder with VMAF. This analysis is excerpted from a lesson in the online course Streaming Media 101: Technical Onboarding for Streaming Media Professionals.  I received the following question from a reader; it’s got such general applicability that I thought I would share my response.  Question:  We’re currently reviewing our ABR ladder …

I’m pleased to report another five-star review for the streaming production course Streaming Media 101: Technical Onboarding for Streaming Media Professionals. So far, the course has been taken hundreds of times with eleven reviews, all five stars. Here’s what the latest review, from Lasse Bronsholt, had to say. The Streaming Media 101 course was a very good experience for me …

Webinar Highlights Three Remote Production Workflows to Enable Attendees to Choose the Best Alternative Here’s the webinar; links to the handouts are below the video window. Thanks to Corey, Anthony, and John for pulling together the information and delivering three great presentations. Corey’s handout here: Anthony’s handout here: John’s handout here: Here’s the description: Remote production became a “thing” during …

YouTube encodes some videos using the AV1 and VP9 codecs. This post identifies the H.264 versions also created by YouTube for devices incompatible with VP9/AV1 for 1080p and larger videos.  In a recent post, I explored which codecs YouTube used for videos ranging from a few hundred views to a few million. The conclusion was H.264 for videos with a …

This article is derived from a lesson in Streaming Media 101: Technical Onboarding for Streaming Media Professionals. If you’re looking for an efficient way to get up to speed on key streaming terms, technologies, workflows, and best practices, check out the course here.  Companies distribute videos for a myriad of reasons; sometimes as the product, sometimes to sell or market …

Here’s the webinar; links to the handouts are below the video window. Thanks to Corey, Anthony, and John for pulling together the information and delivering three great presentations. Corey’s handout here: Anthony’s handout here: John’s handout here: Here’s the description: Remote production became a “thing” during the pandemic and it will remain a thing going forward. But what precisely is …

Author’s Note (March 15, 2022): A colleague recently advised me that YouTube was now encoding all videos into VP9 format. A quick check revealed that he was correct; literally every video that I checked, including some uploaded back in 2010, was encoded into VP9 as well as H.264. What’s interesting is that many low-volume videos, like this one with 118 …

Contribute to the one of the most valuable sources of industry data by completing the Bitmovin Video Developer Survey.  One of the most important information sources that I’ve come to rely upon is the Bitmovin Video Developer Report (2020, 2019, 2018, 2017). I’ve covered it for Streaming Media multiple times (see here) and refer to its findings frequently in my …