Jan Ozer’s Post

Many streaming publishers focus on the top rung of their encoding ladders. Still, recent findings from Qwilt suggest it's time to pay closer attention to the middle rungs, especially when streaming to mobile audiences. Rate shaping, a network management technique used by mobile network operators, is becoming increasingly important as it influences which rungs of the ladder get the most views. To ensure your content looks its best, even at lower bitrates, it's essential to understand rate shaping and how to optimize your encoding strategy accordingly. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AWDqD

New Lessons on Video Monetization Now Available in Streaming Media 101 The Streaming Learning Center is excited to announce four new lessons added to our flagship course, Streaming Media 101: Technical Onboarding for Streaming Media Professionals. New lessons are: Introduction to Monetization: Details revenue models like SVOD, TVOD, FAST, and vMVPDs, and how to optimize encoding for each to ensure compatibility and quality. Ad Insertion Techniques: Explores client-side, server-side, and dynamic ad insertion methods to maximize revenue while maintaining viewer satisfaction. Ad Insertion Standards and Protocols: Introduces standards like VAST, VMAP, and the transition to OMID and SIMID, vital for effective ad delivery and measurement. SCTE 35: Details this essential standard for ad signaling and content replacement, crucial for integrating ads seamlessly in streaming workflows. These lessons are available now to all subscribers. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AWWbZ

Understanding the True Timeline for Codec Adoption Many of us want to see new codecs like AV1 and VVC succeed rapidly, but the reality is more complex. Codec adoption doesn't just depend on innovation; it’s a marathon involving hardware readiness, market penetration, and achieving a 30% device compatibility threshold. My latest article explores these factors in detail, revealing why the road to widespread adoption is often longer than anticipated. ▸ https://lttr.ai/AWVw2

For the most comprehensive encoder or codec comparison, you should track average quality (either mean or preferably harmonic mean), low frame quality, and quality variability. Here, the clip in green shows good average quality, but also a very low-frame region at the start that might appear blocky or otherwise manipulated to your viewers, and inconsistent quality throughout. Simply using an average score obscures these issues that both degrade QoE. Learn how to address these problems in Common Errors Obscured by Automated Video Quality Assessment 👉 https://lttr.ai/APUpT

AV1 Hardware Decode on Smartphones Reaching 10% Q2 2024 stats from Scientiamobile. HEVC hardware decode at 95%. No mention of VVC. https://lnkd.in/eF-kgXhw

I’m thrilled to introduce my newest course on LCEVC video enhancement! It’s designed to introduce newbies to LCEVC, explain why it’s important, identify the tools available for enhancing and decoding, and teach you how to get the most out of encoding videos with LCEVC enhancement. Why LCEVC? 🤔 LCEVC, an MPEG standard, has been selected as the enhancement codec for Brazil’s TV 3.0 system, showcasing its importance. Highly efficient during encoding and decoding, LCEVC can often be deployed in software while hardware support rolls out, making it cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and deployable today. It’s also backward compatible with devices that support the base layer codec and has the most rational royalty policy. LCEVC is poised to succeed in a big way, and now is the time to learn about it. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AWRwS

However, most producers build their batch files with variables inserted directly into the batch file, which means that you have to customize each batch file for different source files or encoding parameters. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AWMuN

Simplify Your Workflow: Command-Line Variables in FFmpeg Batch Files: For FFmpeg users, efficiency is key. Instead of writing a new script for each video file and encoding parameter, you can use command-line variables to streamline your workflow. Command-line variables act as placeholders in your script, allowing you to input different file names and settings directly from the command line. For example, rather than creating separate scripts for encoding input.mp4 with x.264 at 5 Mbps and a GOP of 60 frames, you can write a single script and pass these parameters via a simple command line. Instead of creating 100 scripts, you create one script and run it with a 100-line batch file. This approach saves time and ensures consistency across all your encoding tasks. Learn how in this article: https://lttr.ai/AWDp6

Most people who see my posts are codec enthusiasts who want to see new codecs succeed as quickly as possible. However, certain realities impact the timing of all codec adoption and deployment, first by infrastructure providers and then by publishers. This post reviews these hurdles with pictures. Review all six, and you'll have a great framework for understanding how soon codecs like VVC and even AV1 will be relevant for independent publishers.

Reducing latency is crucial for live event producers, especially for events broadcast on multiple platforms (like broadcast and streaming). However, it's essential to recognize that transcoding latency only slightly contributes to overall latency in adaptive bitrate streaming. Before adjusting your transcode settings for lower latency, consider the impact on video quality and whether the application truly requires ultra-low latency. This article examines the impact of low-latency settings on video quality and reveals that while low-latency settings significantly reduce video quality with x264, the effect is less pronounced with x265. So, the choice of codec and specific encoding settings can have substantial implications for balancing video quality against desired latency in live streaming applications. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AWDHz