Streaming Learning Center’s Jan Ozer makes the case for custom, per-title encoding on the Netflix model, focusing on bitrate issues in part 1 of this 2-part series from his Streaming Media West presentation. Following the model established by Netflix in December 2015, Jan Ozer argues against content providers applying a standard encoding ladder to all of their content because of …

The Common Media Application Format (CMAF) hits a predictable roadblock with encryption, where it enables two incompatible modes. This has one columnist feeling pessimistic. One of the Greek philosopher Zeno’s most famous paradoxes is the Dichotomy Paradox, also called the Infinite Halfway Theory. The concept states that if you keep getting halfway to a certain goal, you never arrive, because …

Here’s the session description; click below to download the handout and watch the session. Almost all of the commercial cloud encoding services, and many of the largest streaming producers encode in the cloud using FFmpeg. It’s cheap, relatively simple, and highly effective. To accomplish this yourself, you need two basic skill sets; first how to encode with FFmpeg, and then …

Here’s the session description; scroll down to download the handout and watch the video. Choosing the number of streams in an adaptive group and configuring them is usually a subjective, touchy-feely exercise, with no way to gauge the effectiveness and efficiency of the streams. However, by measuring stream quality via metrics such as PSNR, SSIM, and VQM, you can precisely …

Here’s the description for my workshop at Streaming Media West; download the handout below: As video resolutions increase and target playback platforms multiply, video producers must leave their H.264/HLS/HDS comfort zone and expand into HEVC, VP9, and MPEG-DASH. This workshop is divided into multiple segments by target platform to teach you the applicable standards and best strategies for delivering live …

I recently finished a white paper comparing the pricing for a new cloud encoding service named Hybrik with multiple cloud providers, including Amazon Elastic Transcoder, Microsoft Azure, Bitmovin, encoding.com, Telestream Cloud, and Zencoder. The white-paper was sponsored by Hybrik, and you can download it below. By way of background, I ran all calculations by the respective services (except Amazon) to verify my …

The Matrox Monarch LCS is an inexpensive dual-input lecture capture solution with two output channels that can be independently set for recording and/or streaming.   At $2,495, the Matrox Monarch LCS is an inexpensive dual-input lecture capture solution with two output channels that can be independently set for recording and/or streaming. You control the unit via a standard browser, and …

New offerings in cloud video encoding let companies both large and small find the option that makes the most sense for them. The benefits of cloud encoding have been clear from the start: less capital expenditure (CAPEX) for encoding gear and the facilities to store it in, and fewer up-front costs for expensive licenses. For many years, however, cloud encoding …

To determine how powerful a system it takes to produce and deliver live event streams, we tested a range of computers (old and new), capture devices, and multiple live streaming software programs, streaming to one or more streaming services, recording archive/ISO files in various formats, and measuring CPU utilization. Read on for the results. When you’re producing a live event …

Anyone can stream to Facebook Live, but if you want to deliver live video via a computer with streaming or encoding software, read on. With 1.65 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social network in the world. It’s no surprise that when the company introduced live streaming, the online video industry took notice. “If Facebook introduces a new …