Beyond H.264: A New Course From Jan Ozer

This course is designed for streaming professionals who need to evaluate HEVC, AV1, and emerging codecs in a way that is technically credible, operationally realistic, and financially defensible, rather than vendor claims or oversimplified ROI models. The course focuses on establishing credible baselines, understanding real efficiency trade-offs, and sequencing codec decisions correctly.

Why this course? Why now?

Codec decisions used to be an engineering sport. Today, they are capital allocation decisions with legal risk attached.

For most of the H.264 era, codec choices were technical and reversible. You ran tests, looked at BD-rate curves, and rolled out what seemed to work best. If the results disappointed, you backed it out with little more than engineering time and some bruised pride. Standards adoption was driven by capability and efficiency, and content owners rarely had to think about patent pools or contingent liabilities.

That assumption no longer holds. The ecosystem around how publishers use codecs, including royalties, pools, bilateral licensors, and how auditors and regulators assess “probable” obligations, has changed in ways that directly affect the P&L. Bandwidth efficiency still matters, but it is no longer the only or even the dominant factor in codec decisions at scale.

Who this is for

Beyond H.264 is intended for engineers, architects, and technical decision-makers responsible for encoding workflows, ladder design, and codec strategy. It provides the tools, templates, and structured guidance to determine the actual financial benefits of any new codec deployment using your own content, encoding ladders, and how your viewers actually use those ladders across devices and networks.

What the course covers

The course focuses on the decisions that materially affect codec outcomes, including:
• Establishing credible H.264 baselines before comparing new codecs
• Understanding per-title and per-genre optimization strategies
• Designing and interpreting encoding ladders and rate-allocation choices
• Using RD curves and BD-Rate correctly, and avoiding common metric traps
• Separating codec gains from encoder, preset, and ladder effects
• Evaluating codec efficiency in the context of cost, complexity, and risk
The emphasis is on methodology and judgment, not vendor claims or theoretical best cases.

Tools and workflows

The course includes access to multiple Python-based encoding and analysis tools used throughout the material. These tools are provided on an as-is basis to support hands-on experimentation and internal analysis. They are not packaged as supported commercial software and are not intended for drop-in production use.

Status

Beyond H.264 is currently in development.
Additional articles and examples will be published ahead of release.

Stay informed

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