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Jan Ozer

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I help companies train new technical hires in streaming media-related positions; I also help companies optimize their codec selections and encoding stacks and evaluate new encoders and codecs. I am a contributing editor to Streaming Media Magazine, writing about codecs and encoding tools. I have written multiple authoritative books on video encoding, including Video Encoding by the Numbers: Eliminate the Guesswork from your Streaming Video (https://amzn.to/3kV6R1j) and Learn to Produce Video with FFmpeg: In Thirty Minutes or Less (https://amzn.to/3ZJih7e). I have multiple courses relating to streaming media production, all available at https://bit.ly/slc_courses. I currently work as www.netint.com as a Senior Director in Marketing.

How to Choose and Use Objective Video Quality Benchmarks

Whether you know it or not, many of the videos that you watch have been configured using video quality metrics. Oh, you disagree? Well, have you have watched Netflix recently? Over the last 2 years or so, Netflix’s encoding ladders have been driven by the company’s Video Multimethod Assessment Fusion (VMAF) metric and, before that, Peak Signal to Noise Ratio …

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Netflix on AV1

A short one. Before my trip to Stockholm last week, I sent a list of questions regarding AV1 to David Ronca, Director of Encoding Technologies at Netflix. As a company, Netflix has been very open and gracious about sharing their opinions and test results, both in their excellent blog posts and in many articles in many publications. Netflix’s scale and encoding …

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HEVC IP Owners Are Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

Just back from ten days in Europe where I spoke at Streaming Tech Sweden and met with many streaming producers and encoding vendors. In particular, the vendors expressed dismay at the slow adoption of HEVC, particularly in view of Apple’s decision to include HEVC in HLS. Now that we’ve confirmed that battery life won’t be an issue, adding HEVC to HLS seems like …

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Download Handout and View Streaming Tech Sweden Keynote

I’m so excited to be at Stockholm speaking at Streaming Tech Sweden. My keynote address is entitled Codecs in 2018 and Beyond, and I discuss the future of H.264, HEVC, VP9, AV1, PERSEUS and Divideon xvc. The event producer, Eyevinn Technologies, has graciously approved my publishing the handout, which you can download below. Here’s the video on YouTube. Streaming Tech Sweden_Ozer_final

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Download Handouts and Watch Videos from Streaming Media West

Just back from Streaming Media West in Huntington Beach, where I participated in seven presentations over three days. Handouts are up and ready for your download, and the videos are up as well. Three of these presentations, on FFmpeg, HEVC/HLS, and latency, were co-produced by David Hassoun and Jun Heider from the RealEyes consultancy, which serves clients like NBC, ESPN, MLBAM, Adobe, and …

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AV1 No Shows At Streaming Media West; Better in Stockholm?

I’ve been bullish on AV1 since the start, but I’m starting to think the codec is both farther away and less useful than I initially thought. Here’s what’s happening. For Streaming Media East in June 2017, an AV1 member encoded four videos, totaling about 8.5 minutes, to five data rates each for 720p, 1080p, and 4K, and the output quality …

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Download Handout for Reducing Latency and Startup Times

Here’s the description; download the handout below. C203 – How To: Reducing Latency and Startup Times Low latency and fast startup times are KPIs for most streaming video producers, particularly for live events. Though a series of structured tests that measure startup time, latency, and network overhead, this session documents the results achieved by reducing fragment sizes, using hybrid fragment …

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Download Per-Title Encoding Handout

Here’s the description: download handout below: Per-title encoding techniques customize the encoding ladder to match the encoding complexity of the source, saving bandwidth on easy-to-compress videos and ensuring the quality of more complex footage. This session compares the efficiency, implementation issues, and costs of multiple commercially available and open-source alternatives, like Capella Systems Cambria Encoder, compression optimization from multiple vendors, …

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D105 – HOW TO: Comparing AV1, VP9, HEVC, & H.264

Here’s the description; download link below. Many content distributors and aggregators still use H.264 as their primary, if not exclusive codec, but the bandwidth savings incident to newer, more powerful codecs are alluring. Those considering a switch must evaluate at least three options; HEVC, VP9, and the Alliance for Open Media’s AV1 codec, which should be close to release by …

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D103 – HOW TO: Building a More Robust Cloud Encoder With FFMPEG & More

Here’s the video and description; download handout below. With the speed of technology today, one of the most important parts of the software is adaptability. By taking control of your own encoding and packaging, you can greatly reduce cost and maintain high adaptability and agility to meet your needs now and in the future. When working with cloud encoding, there …

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