April, 2022

• 3 April

  Estimating the Bitrate for 8K Videos When Encoding with HEVC and AV1

  

  It’s a well-known and oft-repeated truism that codecs operate more efficiently at higher resolutions. The question is, is the truism really true? It turns out that it is, and we prove it below. To lend numbers to our truism and focus the issue, the basic question is this. 8K video has 16 times the pixels of 1080p videos. So, if …

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• 1 April

  Constrained VBR Levels of the Rich and Famous

  

  I’ve been wondering if publishers still care about constraining their maximum bitrates (see here for more background), so I grabbed my copy of youtube-dl and performed a little study. The TL/DR version seems to be that new media sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo don’t strictly adhere to the typical 200% constrained VBR limit while traditional publishers seem to, though …

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March, 2022

• 29 March

  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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• 9 March

  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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• 2 March

  MSU Updates 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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• 2 March

  Bitmovin Video Developer Report Reports on Codec Usage

  

  Every year around this time, like an early Christmas present, Bitmovin releases its Annual Video Developer’s Report, a must-read for all streaming media professionals. Now in its fifth year, the report contains valuable insights regarding codec usage, production workflows, and the issues that are keeping streaming professionals up at night, literally or metaphorically. To produce the report, Bitmovin surveyed 538 …

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• 1 March

  VVC Performance, Royalty, and Implementation Status

  

  VVC reached First Draft International Specification in July 2020. We’re about 18 months past that date and it’s useful to check in on VVC progress to date, including licensing, performance, chipset development, and trials. VVC Patent Owners Video quality is nice, but money makes the world go-’round, so let’s start here. Understand that video compression standards like VVC will have …

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February, 2022

• 6 February

  When a Butterfly Flaps its Wings in Cupertino, VVC’s Success May Be Assured

  

  Given that VVC is top of mind right now, I just wanted to report that IAM has announced that it appears that Apple has purchased 14 VVC-related patents from a Korean inventor. IAM is connecting a lot of dots to (I think) make this claim, which goes something like this. A Korean inventor set up a company that performs video-related …

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January, 2022

• 31 January

  Does FFmpeg 5 Break Your Scripts?

  

  FFmpeg turns 5.0; the new release has big API changes but doesn’t appear to break existing command scripts, though x265-based encodes are worth checking. As much as we like major releases of programs that we know and love, one big question is always whether it changes how we use the program. If you haven’t heard, on January 17, 2022, FFmpeg …

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• 22 January

  Beginner’s Guide to REMI Production

  Remote production has garnered significant notice over the last few years for obvious reasons. While there is a specific definition that I’ll share below, the concept has expanded to any production schema where the talent or event is at one location and the video production at another. In a recent webinar produced by the Streaming Learning Center, three experts presented …

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