July, 2014

• 11 July

  Insights from the Ooyala Global Video Index

  Ooyala is one of the top three online video platforms (OVP) and releases a quarterly “video index” that “measures the anonymized viewing habits of viewers in 239 countries and territories, from Argentina to Zimbabwe, around the world,” and reports on those findings. You can download the document at the Ooyala website here. This quarter’s (Q1 2014) report heads with a …

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• 11 July

  Encoding in the Cloud or On Premise

  I was once a skeptic on cloud encoding, but over the last 12 months have become a believer. In my Streaming Media article, The Cloud Vs. On-Premises Encoding Dilemma, I discuss why, discussing three classes of companies. The first should go directly to the cloud. The second should go hybrid, encoding normal demand on-premise and overflow in the cloud. The …

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• 11 July

  Don’t Buy that UHD TV: It May Go Obsolete Faster Than You Think

  Holiday buying season is right around the corner, and soon you’ll be subjected to advertising from multiple sources to buy a new UHD TV set. I like shiny new objects as much as the next guy, but before you succumb, you should know that there’s a good chance that the set will be obsolete within the next couple of years. …

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• 11 July

  Amazon Transcoder; My Review (Meh!)

  On one level, Amazon’s Elastic Transcoder is a finely-tuned service well crafted for the largest sweet spot of the cloud encoding market, Plain Jane H.264 transcoding. On another level, its a service that aimed low from an interface and usability standpoint, and clearly hit its mark. I’m used to the public side of the Amazon house, which is always top …

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• 7 July

  Ustream Test Page

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• 1 July

  Libcast Test Page

  Direct Embed Embed from Embedded Video   Embed from Rich Media Video

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June, 2014

• 25 June

  Producing and Distributing HEVC

  Here’s the description; click below to download the handout and access the sample files. This session explores the current status of HEVC, identifying options for encoding live and on-demand HEVC and discussing player options in the streaming and OTT markets. Topics include the comparative quality and usability of HEVC encoders, how HEVC quality compares to H.264 and VP9 (if encoders …

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• 25 June

  Encoding for Multiple Screen Delivery

  Here’s the session description. This session details the playback capabilities and technology compatibilities of desktop, mobile, and TV screens, and explores the technical issues and feasibility of producing one set of streams for all platforms, including how technologies like transmuxing and live transcoding simplify the overall distribution workflow. Click below to download the handout. The video is directly below. 

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• 17 June

  Data Rates for HEVC Testing

  A few weeks ago, I ran a survey to determine the average data rate used by video producers when encoding H.264 to 720p and 1080p resolutions. The thought was, once I knew this, I could encode using HEVC at the half the data rate and compare the quality to see if HEVC lived up to its “same quality at half …

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• 14 June

  More on MPEG LA HEVC Royalty Policy

  My recent column, MPEG LA’s HEVC Licensing Terms Are Flawed, Will Prevent Adoption, has generated lots of comments in the LinkedIn HEVC/H.265 Group. One comment, from Anthony Mai, sparked a lengthy response, which I wanted to share. By way of background, I don’t like the proposed licensing terms for multiple reasons, including: – They don’t match the expense of the license …

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