Transcript Slide 1

Welcome to Today’s
Streaming Media Web Event
Moderator
Dan Rayburn
EVP
Streaming Media
Transcoding 101
David Trescot
VP, Rhozet Business Unit
Harmonic, Inc
Speaker
David Trescot
VP, Rhozet
Harmonic, Inc.
Introductions
• Who is Rhozet?
Spun out from Canopus in 2004
Maker of ProCoder and Carbon Coder
Provides transcoding for Yahoo!, Amazon, Microsoft, Hulu,
CBS, NBC, Turner, BBC, Fox, Discovery, Lifetime, etc.
Acquired by Harmonic in 2007
• Who is Harmonic?
Leading equipment provider to cable, satellite, and IPTV
networks
Publicly traded (NASDAQ:HLIT)
690 people, $365M in revenue
This Transcoding Thing…
• The process of converting one format to another
Facilitates moving media across production, post-production,
archival, and delivery ecosystems
Acts as the “glue” between different manufacturers
Provides future proofing
• Allows repurposing and monetization of assets
Every destination viewer has different requirements
Allows for the automated creation of custom assets
(commercials, promos, logos, etc.)
• Enables advanced workflows
Sending a file to 10 people who all see it differently depending
on their needs (preview, timecode, language…)
Database integration
• An engine that can be integrated into various
applications and devices
Transcoding Terminology
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Codecs
Profiles
Containers
Formats
Platforms
Codecs
• Codec = Compressor/Decompressor
The software or hardware engine that moves uncompressed
frames into the compressed domain (and vice versa)
• Typically “lossy”
Reduction in information at each encode
• Typically asymetrical
Decompression is often 10x (or more) faster than compression
• Techniques
Subsampling
• 4:2:0 vs. 4:2:2 or 4:4:4
• 8 bit vs. 10 bit color resolution
Transformation and simplification
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Discard high-frequency changes in color
DCT (MPEG-2)
Wavelet (JPEG-2000)
Intra-frame = within a single frame
Motion analysis and estimation
• Most video frames are similar to the ones around them
• Inter-frame = between multiple frames
Codecs (cont.)
• Codecs using intra-frame compression
DV, MPEG-2 (IMX), AVC-Intra, JPEG-2000, DNxHD,
etc.
Typically acquisition and editing formats
• Codecs using inter-frame compression
H.264, MPEG-2 LongGOP, WMV, VP6, etc.
Typically distribution formats
• Standards like H.264 only specify how to
decode the content
Allows for compatibility while leaving room for
innovation in compression techniques
Profiles (and Levels)
• A “Profile” defines a specific type of compression for a
particular codec
Defines the syntax that is supported
The decoder must match the encoder’s profile support
A codec vendor does not have to support all possible profiles
A “Level” defines maximum resolution and data rate
• H.264 Examples
Baseline Profile (BP): limited computing power required for decode
High Profile (HiP): primary profile for broadcast and BluRay
High 4:2:2 Profile (Hi422P): 4:2:2 chroma
• MPEG-2 Examples
Main Profile@Main Level (MP@ML): standard def at max 15Mb/s
Main Profile@High Level (HP@HL): up to HD at 80Mb/s
4:4:4 Profile@High Level (422P@HL): supports 4:2:2 chroma
Containers
• AKA “wrappers”
• A container can contain multiple types of codecs
• A container can contain more than just video
Animation, music, speech, text, subtitles, etc.
• A container is used to identify, interleave, and
synchronize the various components
Critically important for successful playback
Most of the idiosyncrasies of a particular device or distribution
medium are expressed in the container specifications
Single biggest source of incompatibility is in containers rather
than codecs
• Example containers
QuickTime, AVI, ASF, WMV, MXF, M2TS, M2PS, MP4, VOB,
LXF, GXF, WAV, 3GPP
Formats
• The combination of a container and a specified
set of codecs (essence) and metadata
Example: M2TS with H.264 (HP) video and MPEG-1
Layer 2 audio
• In more detail includes parameters
M2TS
H.264 video
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720x480, 29.97fps, upper field first
CBR, 3 Mbps data rate,
High profile, 3.2 Level, ATSC closed-captioning
…and about 50 other parameters
MPEG-1 Layer 2 audio
• Stereo, 16-bits per sample, 48Khz sample rate
• 128 Kbps data rate
Platforms
• The device on which a particular format will be
played back, archived, edited, etc.
• Formats can be platform dependent or
independent
MPEG-1 is platform independent
Flash and WMV are platform dependent (Flash Media
Player and Windows Media Player respectively)
• Just to make things confusing, codecs,
containers, formats, and platforms can all be
named similarly
For example, MPEG-2 is both a codec and a
container
The Transcoding Pipeline
Video
Decode
Video
Transform
Video
Encode
DeMultiplex
Multiplex
Audio
Decode
Audio
Transform
Audio
Encode
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Multipex = “wrapping” in the container
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Transform = scale, frame rate, crop, logos, concatenation, filtering, etc.
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Different transcoders can yield very different results even if they use the
same codecs
The Great Thing About Standards…
H.264 MXF DPX Flash AAC M2TS
MPEG-2 DPS WMV VOB Dolby DVCPro100
VC-1 MPEG-4 AVC-Intra DV50 M2PS 3GPP
JPEG-2000
DV25
DNxHD
DVCPro
OP1a
QuickTime
AC-3
Omneon
3G2
AVI
ASF
HDV
LXF
WAV
WAV
DivX
F4V
OPAtom
MP4
MPEG-1
AVCHD
GXF
Why Can’t We Just Use One Format?
• Specific purposes
Acquisition/editing (highest quality, generational
fidelity, direct frame access)
Distribution (bandwidth, acceptable quality)
• Hardware restrictions
Set top boxes
Cable bandwidth
Mobile phone processing power
• Money
Manufacturer “lock-in”
Platform ownership
Royalties
Rhozet needs your business
What’s Next?
• Reduction in bitrate for the same quality
• Will there be a codec twice as “good” as H.264?
Place Your Bets…
• Acquisition
H.264 (AVC-Intra)
• Television
H.264 in M2TS
• Web
H.264 in MP4/F4V
WMV/VC-1 in ASF
• Mobile
H.264 in MP4, 3GPP
• Archiving
Whatever you acquired in
• Transcoding
Even if everything is in H.264 you will still be transcoding
Beyond Transcoding
• Watermarking & Fingerprinting
• DRM
• Smooth Streaming
• Royalties
• ROI
Watermarking and Fingerprinting
• Watermarking
Invisible information embedded into image data, typically
embedding data in color frequency information
Can be used to track individual assets
Philips/Teletrax (now Civolution), Thomson NexGuard,
Dolby Cinea, etc.
Embedder, investigator, manager, database
Watermarks can “step” on each other
• Fingerprinting
No information embedded into file
Audio and video are sampled to create “fingerprint” that can
be searched and matched against central database
No tracking ability for individual versions of assets
Civolution, Vobile, Audible Magic, YouTube, etc.
Digital Rights Management (DRM)
• Technology to restrict unauthorized use or
distribution of content
Most computer-based systems use a combination of a
license server and public key encryption which ties
specific content to a specific machine or device
Reduces but does not eliminate piracy
All broadly deployed technologies have been beaten
• Popular Systems
FairPlay (Apple, iTunes and iPod specific)
Windows Media DRM (Microsoft, Windows specific)
Flash DRM (Adobe, Flash specific)
MagicGate (Sony, PSP and MemoryStick specific)
Emerging Technologies
• Microsoft Smooth Streaming
Not really “streaming”, but rather smart download
Uses HTTP rather than RTSP
Encodes video at 6 different bitrates in many small 2
second “chunks”
Player requests “chunks” of different bitrates
depending on available connection speed
User experience is seamless even with variable
connection
Requires Silverlight player and Microsoft IIS server
Check it out at www.SmoothHD.com
H.264 Royalties
• H.264 patent pool administered by MPEG-LA
Four categories: title-by-title, subscription, free TV, free internet
• Title-by-title (includes VOD and Disc)
No royalty for <12 minute content
Lower of 2% or $.02 per title
• Subscription
No royalty < 100K subs
$25K for 100K to 250K subs, $50K for 250K to 500K, $75K for
500K to 1M, $100K for > 1M
• Free TV
$2,500 one-time per AVC transmission encoder or…
$2,500 annual per Broadcast Market of 100K to 500K, $5K for
500K to 1M, $10K > 1M
• Free Internet
No royalty before 2011
After that, no more than for “economic equivalent” of free television
Unclear exactly how that applies
How Do You Increase Your ROI?
• Customize
Targeting
Reuse content (yours and other people’s)
Understand the long tail
• Refresh
Make, beg, buy, borrow, or steal
• Automate
Automation is the only cost-effective way to scale
• Explore
Small tests of technologies and partnerships can be
cheap to explore
• Save everything
The cost of acquiring generally dwarfs the cost of
storing content
Shameless Promotion
Rhozet Universal Media Transcoding
Supported Video Codecs
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MPEG-1
MPEG-2, D-10/IMX
MPEG-4 Part 2
H.264/AVC/MPEG-4 Part 10
VC-1
AVC-Intra
DNxHD
JPEG-2000
DV25, DV50, DVCPro, DVCPro100
HDV
DPS
DPX
Windows Media
Flash 8 (VP6)
Image Sequences
RealVideo
Supported Audio Codecs
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PCM
MP3
DTS
AC-3
AAC
AMR-NB
Dolby Digital
Windows Media Audio
RealAudio
Supported Containers
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AVI
QuickTime
ASF, WMA, WMV
MXF (OP1a, OPAtom)
MPEG-2 PS, MPEG-2 TS
MP4, F4V
VOB
LXF, GXF
WAV, Broadcast WAV
3GPP
3G2
Supported Systems
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Omneon Spectrum, MediaGrid
Leitch VR, Nexio
Grass Valley Profile, K2
Quantel sQ
Panasonic P2
Sony XDCAM
Avid Editing Systems
Apple Final Cut Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro
Grass Valley Edius
Universal Media Transcoding (cont.)
Basic Video Operations
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Frame size conversion
Frame rate conversion
Color space conversion
Aspect ratio conversion
Interlace/De-interlace conversion
Telecine / inverse telecine
PAL/NTSC conversion
SD/HD conversion
Cropping
Video Processing
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Fade in/out
Black/white correction
Blur
Color correction
Gamma correction
NTSC-safe
Median
Rotate
Sharpen
Temporal noise reduction
Audio Processing
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Normalize
Fade In/Out
Low-pass
Volume
Dynamic range compressor
Additional Operations
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Timecode imprint
Subtitle/CC imprint
XML controllable titler
Metadata transport and conversion
Line 21/CC preservation/conversion
Quality checking
Logo insertion
601/709 color space support
Video capture board support
Multiple simultaneous target outputs
Unlimited number of encoding passes
Remote job submission
Batch processing
Watch folder automation
Segment extraction/insertion
FTP delivery
Scalable Technology
Rhozet’s transcoding software can run on a
single machine or across an entire network
of machines
Takes advantage of off-the-shelf hardware
Multiple ways to control the Carbon engine
Easy-to-use GUI
Batch processing
Network watch folders
XML-based API for programmatic control
Carbon Server management software
Products & Pricing
Carbon Coder
Desktop and automated transcoding on Windows XP
Support for all broadcast formats (MXF, LXF, GXF, etc.)
Support for analog and SDI ingest (3rd party hardware)
XML-based API
Pricing: $5,995 USD
Carbon Server
Manager for distributed transcoding processing
Supports unlimited number of engines with load balancing
XML-based API
Pricing: $14,995 USD
Incorporates integrated transcoding
• 5 node farm = 1 CS + 4 CCs
Some of Our Customers…
Amazon.com
E! Entertainment
Rainbow Media
Ascent Media
Echostar
Rogers Sportsnet
Bayerischer Rundfunk Elektrofilm
Sony
BBC News
Fox
Studio Hamburg
BSkyB
Framepool
Swissinfo/SRI
BT
GlobalFibre
Technicolor
Cablevision
Hulu.com
Telekom Austria
CBS
Incited Media
Televisa
CinemaNow
Lifetime
Thought Equity
Comcast
Pappas Broadcasting
Time Warner Cable
Cox Communications
MSN
Weather Channel
Deluxe Digital Studios MTV
Thought Equity
Deutsche Telekom
Playboy
TiVo
Discovery Channel
ProSiebenSat.1
Yahoo!
OEM Partners
Adobe Systems
Adstream
Avid (Sundance Digital)
Comcast (thePlatform)
Crispin
Dalet
DAQTron
DayPort (Entriq)
FlowWorks
Grass Valley
i-Yuno
iMake
iQ Computer
Masstech
Motorola
Onlinelib
Pathfire
Pebble Beach Software
Pharos
Quantel
Screen Subtitling
S4M
SGI Japan
SGL-UK
Silex Media
VCS Engineering
VideoBank
Visono
Volicon
Vyvx
Question and Answer Session
(please submit questions)
Archive
This presentation will be archived and available at the
same URL. We will be sending you a follow-up email
once the archive is posted.
Thank You!
• All attendees will be sent a link to a white paper
“Transcoding 101”
• Demos, white papers, case studies, performance
guides, etc. are all available at www.rhozet .com