I’m allergic to command-line encoders like FFmpeg, so the Streaming Learning Center blog has very little to offer folks using this encoder when it comes to techniques and command line arguments. I just learned about a new blog entitled ReneVolution which is highly focused on FFmpeg; the link will take you to a post on FFmpeg 2.0 which shipped in …

Just a quick note to let you know that the Streaming Learning Center will host six free webinars on encoding and distributing streaming media. The series will start with a very basic webinar designed for totally novice users, and will progress to topics like Fundamentals of H.264 Encoding, Distributing to Desktops and Mobile Devices via HMTL5, and Implementing Advanced and …

Once you have kids, you can no longer post your own accomplishments on the refrigerator door for the world to see; it’s too crowded, and the kids don’t really care. So I thought I would post a lovely note I got from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) here. Five out of five for engineers, which usually are a pretty …

Encoding.com just published a best practices article entitled, The Current State of Android and Video, A Full Overview & Best Practices of Android Video. The article first outlines the issues relating to encoding for Android delivery, and then discusses different alternatives for distributing to these devices, including Encoding.com’s own Vid.ly service. Topics covered include captioning, digital rights management (DRM), compatibility …

I recently signed up for Comcast broadband and just got my first invoice-in the form of a custom video. Pretty cool idea given that broadband users run the gamut from tech-savvy to technology laggards, and the bill lays the charges out in a very clear manner. If you’re a Comcast user, this is probably old hat; if not, have a …

I gave this talk at the Streaming Forum in London in  June 2013. Here’s the description: Most publishers today have to distribute to three sets of screens; desktop, mobile and OTT. This session will start by detailing the playback capabilities and technology compatibilities of all three platforms. Then it will explore the technical issues and feasibility of producing one set …

There have been a lot of quick hit articles both praising and bashing DASH, but few scholarly articles that take a deep look at the technology, its promise and limited progress to date. In a new article up on the Streaming Media website, entitled MPEG-DASH: Making Tracks Toward Widespread Adoption, Adrian Pennington takes a long hard look at DASH, with …

I was scanning through some news videos for a consulting project and noticed a CBS News interview with special prosecutor Angela Corey after the Treyvon Martin/George Zimmerman verdict. The scheme as simple and produced an elegant look, so I thought I would share. As you can see in the image below, the interviewer and interviewee sat across from each other, …

One of the coolest new features in Adobe Premiere Pro CC is the ability to create, edit and output closed captions. In this tutorial I’ll introduce you to those caption-related features, using some of the content that I used in my book, Premiere Pro CC: Visual QuickStart Guide, which is available now on Amazon. Click over to the main article to view …

I’ve long been a DASH skeptic, for multiple reasons, including the fact that the standard was so broad so as to be almost unusable. That is, since DASH supports multiple codecs and container formats, there’s no mechanism to ensure compatibility. So, if Mozilla adds DASH playback support that decodes WebM encoded video in an MPEG-2 transport stream, and Elemental produces …