| Digitisation & Encoding Services
We provide a complete video mastering and encoding service if you need it. Our know-how is based on years of R&D focused entirely on digital video formats, compression techniques and the pursuit of optimum bits-per-second-per-pixel stream quality.
Digital Mastering
We can take source video in practically any professional format and produce a complete and uniform set of digital master files for long-term archival and from which we can then output streamable versions of the video content in a range of different bitrates. We typically master in H.264 MP4 as follows:
| |
SD |
HD |
| Aspect |
4x3 |
16x9 |
21x9 |
16x9 |
21x9 |
| Dimension |
720x540 |
720x404 |
720x304 |
1920x1080 |
1920x820 |
| Bitrate |
5Mbps |
5Mbps |
5Mbps |
35Mbps |
35Mbps |
| bps per Pixel |
13bps |
17bps |
23bps |
17bps |
22bps |
|
Encoding For Streaming
We have spent many years researching and refining our know-how in video compression for streaming. We have painstakingly evaluated just about every compression codec and video packaging format so far devised and we've done the same with every variety of streaming server.
Although we like Quicktime Streaming Server and H.264 compressed MOV video, the Quicktime web player does not have a full-screen scaling capability for streamed video.
We definitely don't like Windows Media Streaming Server nor the proprietary WMV compression and packaging. Mac users cannot watch WMV streamed video without the Silverlight plugin and the less said about Silverlight, the better.
Until recently the Adobe Flash Streaming Server could only stream On2 compressed FLV video but FLV is an awkward format for storing and handling video. We have concluded that the very best results are obtained using the H.264 codec and the MP4 packaging format and streaming via the Adobe Flash Streaming Server.
We have developed expert systems and workflows to provide rapid turnaround encoding of large quantities of video and we believe that we can deliver the highest possible quality viewing experience at any given bitrate. Currently, we recommend streaming SD video for ordinary web users at circa 768kbps (720kbps video and 48kbps audio). For HD video, we advise that full 1920x1080 HD streaming is not yet a practical reality because the pixel area is 7 times that of SD video. Instead, for HD streaming we recommend using the lower 1280x720 HD format with a video bitrate of circa 1.5Mbps. The table below summarises our current standards for encoding for streaming:
| |
SD |
HD |
| Aspect |
4x3 |
16x9 |
21x9 |
16x9 |
21x9 |
| Dimension |
720x540 |
720x404 |
720x304 |
1280x720 |
1280x548 |
| Video Bitrate |
720kbps |
720kbps |
720kbps |
1.5Mbps |
1.5Mbps |
| bps per Pixel |
1.8bps |
2.5bps |
3.3bps |
1.6bps |
2.1bps |
|
The bits per second per pixel measurement is critical because it determines the viewing quality, both at native display dimension and especially when viewers click the "Full Screen" button.
Encoding For iPhone
The iPhone handles video in ways that other mobile devices haven't achieved. The iPhone OS doesn't allow Adobe Flash video streaming, but its built-in Quicktime player is capable of great things. One of those things is being able to jump the video playhead very quickly to arbitrary timepoints within a video that is being progressively downloaded via HTTP. Web browsers cannot do this with progressive downloads but the iPhone can, so it is an ideal mobile platform for video applications that exploit deep video search with precise timepoint playing.
When we encode for the iPhone family, we create high quality WiFi and lower quality 3G/Edge versions of each video with encoding settings as follows:
| |
WiFi |
3G/Edge |
| Aspect |
4x3 |
16x9 |
21x9 |
4x3 |
16x9 |
| Dimension |
424x320 |
480x270 |
480x204 |
176x132 |
176x98 |
| Video Bitrate |
512kbps |
512kbps |
512kbps |
80kbps |
80kbps |
| bps per Pixel |
3.7bps |
4.0bps |
5.2bps |
3.4bps |
4.6bps |
|
Our Video Encoder & Direct Upload Software Application
As part of our own Online Video Platform, we have developed a unique video encoding and uploading application that is now available for bespoke projects.
Our Uploader App is open source and runs identically on Macs and PCs. It can take video in any source format and automatically encode it for high quality H.265 MP4 streaming and then upload the final video file to secure client accounts on our systems for direct transfer to our streaming servers or to those of our clients or to CDN accounts. The Uploader App performs the following basic functions:
- Encodes any source video to H.264 MP4 streaming format
- Automatic aspect ratio handling
- Stitching together of multiple source files
- Automatic thumbnail stills extraction
- Secure client account authentication
- Direct upload to our ingestion servers
The application is unique because it encodes on the user's computer before it uploads to our ingestion servers. This dramatically reduces the uploading time and obviates the need for processor-hungry video encoding at the server end.
The application is customisable. It can be branded for our clients and can be distributed by our clients to their employees or end users, making it as simple as possible for new video material to be added to the video CMS solutions we provide. For more detailed information, please see our Video Uploader App section.
To talk to us about your video encoding needs, please email us: sales@doovle.com.
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