February, 2019

• 19 February

  MPEG LA Forces Huawei to Pay (for H.264 that is)

  

  In this January 2019 article in Streaming Media Magazine, I reported that two patent holders in the MPEG-LA patent portfolio group had sued Huawei and ZTE in Germany for patent infringement and had won. As stated therein, “the judgment was particularly onerous; not only did the court order the two companies to stop selling the offending mobile phones in Germany, they …

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• 18 February

  MSU Adds VMAF 4K Model and Data Rate Displays to VQMT Version 11

  

  Moscow State University’s Video Quality Measurement Tool (VQMT) has been my go-to file analysis tool dating back to 2014 (see my initial review, here, and an update, here). As you can see in this video, version 11 of the tool adds several new features, including support for the VMAF 4K model, data rate graphs, and a results table. I’ve also …

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November, 2018

• 20 November

  New Five Star Review of FFmpeg Book

  

  One frustration of writing books for developers is that they’re not the most prolific group when it comes to writing book reviews (or, well, at least not for my books). So it’s always cause for celebration when a review posts, especially when the review accurately captures the value I was hoping to deliver with the book. So it was with Matthew White’s …

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• 18 November

  Demuxed ’18 Highlights: The Future of Codecs and Compression

  

  Demuxed is the annual conference for video engineers by video engineers. Held on October 17 and 18 in San Francisco, the conference included 31 speakers giving talks in rapid-fire fashion ranging in duration from 10 to 30 minutes. To use a well-worn but appropriate metaphor, the experience is like drinking from a fire hose: almost impossible to comprehend and digest in …

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• 13 November

  Download Handout: Fine-Tuning Adaptive Group With Objective Quality Metrics

  

  Here’s the description; download handout below. T101. HOW-TO: Fine-Tuning Your Adaptive Encoding Groups With Objective Quality Metrics Tuesday, November 13: 10:30 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. Choosing the number of streams in an adaptive group and configuring them is usually a subjective, touchy-feely exercise, with no way to really gauge the effectiveness and efficiency of the streams. However, by measuring stream …

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• 12 November

  W4. Encoding Live & VOD For HEVC/HLS

  

  W4. Encoding Live & VOD For HEVC/HLS Monday, November 12: 1:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Apple’s support for HEVC in HLS is a groundbreaking event that opens up hundreds of millions of HEVC capable players. If supporting this spec is on your short-term development schedule, check out this workshop. The workshop starts by reviewing the new spec and sharing playback …

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• 12 November

  Download Handout: Encoding 2018: Codecs & Packaging For PCs, Mobile, & OTT/STB/Smart TVs

  

  Download the handout from this presentation below: Here’s the description: 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, AV1, 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 and VODadaptive video …

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• 9 November

  Best Practices for Netflix’s VMAF Metric

  Zhi Li, senior software engineer at Netflix, recently co-wrote a paper entitled VMAF: The Journey Continues posted on the Netflix Technology Blog on Medium. After reviewing why VMAF was developed, how it’s been adopted in the industry, and some recent improvements, the paper discusses some best practices for using VMAF. In particular, this last section will be valuable to anyone who uses this …

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October, 2018

• 30 October

  Apple’s Roger Pantos to Give Kickoff Session at Streaming Media West

  

  I have a confession to make. Though I’ve attended dozens of Streaming Media conferences, I’ve never attended a kickoff session. Not, of course, because the content wasn’t information and insightful, but because I’m always scurrying about trying to finish my own presentations. This dubious accomplishment ends at Streaming Media West next month, when Roger Pantos, the inventor of HTTP Live …

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• 18 October

  New Codecs Are Coming; Here’s How to Evaluate Codec Evaluations

  

  As we transition from H.264 to VP9, HEVC, AV1, and soon VVC (Versatile Video Coding), it’s important to understand the fundamentals of codec comparisons and how to evaluate their effectiveness and utility. In this expanded column I’ll cover both. Evaluating the Evaluation Let’s begin with how to evaluate the evaluation. I start by identifying the evaluator and its affiliations, giving …

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