Recent Posts

Does Anyone Care About Constrained VBR Anymore?

I’m comparing cloud-based per-title VOD encoding technologies for a report I hope to publish in the near term. In an attempt to create a level playing field I set the following specifications. 2-second GOP 200% constrained VBR 2-second VBV buffer Kind of like you were encoding with FFmpeg and using these parameters -b:v 2600k -maxrate 5200k -bufsize 5200k All cloud services …

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Introduction to Streaming Media for Non-Technical Staff

I’ve launched a new course entitled Introduction To Streaming Media for Non-Technical Staff. As the name suggests, the course introduces non-technical employees to fundamental concepts of streaming media. The basic concept is that even if you’re not an engineer, you should know what a codec is, why H.264 is still king, what DRM is (and why we need it), what …

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MSU Updates Video Quality Measurement Tool

Video Quality Measurement Tool

Moscow State University’s Video Quality Measurement Tool (MSU VQMT) is my go-to utility for computing and visualizing objective metrics like VMAF, PSNR, and SSIM. In version 13, MSU increased codec compatibility and metric performance, added new HDR metrics and display capabilities, and enhanced VQMT’s already best-in-class visualization tools. If you’re a VQMT user, it’s an essential upgrade. If you’re not, …

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