February, 2017

• 28 February

  Download Handout from Rating HEVC Contenders

  Below is the handout from my presentation at the Streaming Forum entitled, HEVC: Rating the Contenders Operators adding HEVC to their delivery pipeline will have plenty of codec options, but who has the time to evaluate their features, output quality, and performance? No worries – codec specialist Jan Ozer has done the work for you, evaluating leading contenders like x265 …

  Read More »
• 8 February

  Webinar: Top 10 Encoding Mistakes Made by Streaming Producers

  I’m co-hosting a webinar with MediaPlatform on February 23, 2017 at 2:00 PM ET entitled Top Ten Encoding Mistakes Made by Streaming Producers. Here’s the description.  Join MediaPlatform and Jan Ozer of Streaming Media Magazine for an in-depth discussion that will cover: Live webcasting and on-demand video allow your organization to leverage the power of streaming media to improve internal …

  Read More »
• 4 February

  Per-Title Encoding With the Capella Systems Cambria FTC Encoder

  So, I was reviewing Camtasia 9 for Streaming Media magazine (review to appear later in the year), and I had promised Capella Systems a testimonial for their Cambria FTC encoder, specifically the per-title encoding feature. Below is the video I produced in Camtasia describing per-title encoding, discussing why it’s important, and detailing how it works in Cambria FTC.  As a …

  Read More »
• 2 February

  Join Me at the Streaming Forum In London at a Discount!

  Just a quick note to let you know that I’m speaking on two topics at the Streaming Forum later this month in London, and leading two roundtable discussions.    On Tuesday, February 28th, at 11:30, I’ll present HEVC: Rating the contenders. Here’s the description:  Operators adding HEVC to their delivery pipeline will have plenty of codec options, but who has …

  Read More »
• 2 February

  INXPO Publishes Q & A Session Regarding Video Encoding by the Numbers

  On February 2, online event producer INXPO published a question and answer session regarding my new book, Video Encoding by the Numbers. The session included six questions, ranging from, “how did you get into writing a book on compression?” to “who is this book for?” The most revealing question was, “what’s different from other books on streaming production?” Here’s the …

  Read More »

January, 2017

• 25 January

  YouTube Stops H.264 4K Encoding; Will Apple Adopt VP9?

  Apple Safari has never supported VP8 or VP9, but a move by Google’s YouTube pressures it to do so: Safari users can’t see new 4K videos on YouTube. Apple Safari is the only current browser that doesn’t support Google’s VP9. In a move that may go a long way towards convincing Apple to do so, YouTube has stopped encoding 4K …

  Read More »
• 19 January

  First Book Review: Ozer Transforms Video Compression from Alchemy to Science

  First Amazon book review is out from technologist Douglas Dixon, who blogs at the Manifest Tech Blog. I love the title of the review, Ozer Transforms Video Compression from Alchemy to Science, because it captures exactly what I tried to do in the book. Here’s a snippet from the middle of the review. First, Ozer covers the basics of video …

  Read More »
• 19 January

  Facebook Live Resources

  I spent a lot of time late last fall looking at Facebook Live, trying to understand who was using it and why, and which tools they used. This effort culminated in three resources available now on the Streaming Media website.  Here’s the main article entitled Facebook Live: A Progress Report After One Year of Growth. The intro, copied below, describes …

  Read More »
• 18 January

  Facebook Live: A Progress Report After One Year of Growth

  How are organizations such as PBS and TechCrunch using Facebook Live to reach and grow their audiences? The platform has been with us for a year now, so it’s time to check in. We’ve all known for a while that you can stream live video to Facebook Pages. While the technical side is interesting, the big questions on our minds …

  Read More »
• 17 January

  Choosing the Data Rate for your Mezzanine Files

  

  (Note: This article was amended to show the comparative results at 6 mbps) Summary (The MPD) As more and more producers move their encoding to the cloud, or distributing via OVPs or other service providers, the data rate for the mezzanine files is significant factor for upload time and bandwidth and storage costs. The big question is, how much extra …

  Read More »