In the early days of digital video, encoding a full-length movie could take several hours or even days to complete, depending on the settings and techniques that were used. Over time, as processor speeds increased and specialized hardware was introduced, encoding turnaround times decreased, but it was usually an incremental, linear response to the advancements in technology. Once cloud computing resources became readily available and opened new possibilities, cloud-native encoding services like Bitmovin disrupted the status quo with massive gains for encoding speed and turnaround times. This potential was unlocked by developing an innovative new technique known as split-and-stitch encoding. 

What is split-and-stitch encoding? 

As the name suggests, split-and-stitch encoding is a method of encoding that involves splitting a file into smaller chunks, encoding those chunks separately, and then stitching them back together. These smaller chunks being encoded in parallel with separate cloud computing resources led to huge leaps in shortening turnaround times. Prior to that, digital videos were processed linearly, which was an unnecessary limitation carried over from film and tape processing workflows, where the physical medium was actually a limiting factor.  

How fast is split-and-stitch encoding?

Back in 2015 when Bitmovin first implemented our encoder on the Google Compute Engine (now Google Cloud Platform) we were able to achieve encoding speeds of 66x real-time running in their cloud, as mentioned here. With some further optimization, we became the first to reach 100x real-time encoding speeds. 

The actual turn-around times for your encoding jobs will depend on a lot of factors including source format, codec(s), resolution, duration and advanced features like Dolby Vision, but even with very complex 4K HDR workflows, your encodes will run faster than real-time using split and stitch. Below is a real-world example of an H.264/AAC encoding that ran faster than 92x real-time.

Running split-and-stitch encoding in the cloud means your individual encoding jobs run faster than real-time, but it also means that you can scale to run many jobs in parallel which allows large backlogs to be cleared in hours instead of weeks. You also have the capacity to handle spikes of content with no impact on queue time.

What are the advantages of Bitmovin’s split-and-stitch encoding?

Bitmovin has over a decade of experience developing and refining our split-and-stitch implementation. We built our system to take advantage of spot and preemptible instances to keep costs down, while surpassing the quality of single instance encodes with innovations like 3-pass encoding and Smart Chunking.  Our intelligent workload orchestration allows you to manage priority and resource scheduling with capacity for thousands of jobs per hour.

Bitmovin also supports using multiple codecs and packaging formats together with split-and-stitch, including H.264 (AVC), H265 (HEVC), VP9 and AV1 with both HLS and DASH, where other platforms may be limited to H.264 and HLS. We’ve also implemented fast decode enhancements for large J2K and ProRes mezzanine source files that reduce the overall turnaround time even further. 

What is Smart Chunking?

In 2023, Bitmovin made some key changes and updates to our VOD Encoder with a new feature called Smart Chunking. This further increased the potential visual quality and turnaround times that were possible with split and stitch by decoupling the split-and-stitch chunk duration from the user-defined segment duration. This allows for variable chunk size depending on the type of codec and the complexity of encoding, enabling many immediate improvements and future optimizations. Using Smart Chunking means we can segment chunks at the optimal points with better bitrate distribution, providing more consistent quality without any noticeable dips. 

In the graph below, you can see a comparison of an encoding job run with and without Smart Chunking. While the overall quality is similar, in the blue version (without Smart Chunking) there are several lower quality outlier frames. By using Smart Chunking (orange version) the lowest 1% of frames in terms of quality were improved by an average of 6 VMAF points, which is a noticeable difference. The lowest 0.1% improved by 22 VMAF points and the single worst frame gained a massive 60 VMAF points.

Is split-and-stitch always the best approach? 

The steps of analyzing, splitting and reassembling chunks of video do add some overhead processing time to the encoding process. For longer episodic content or movies, the added time is negligible compared to the time saved by using split-and-stitch. But, for shorter videos like ads and news clips that are time-sensitive, the pre-processing can make using split-and-stitch less advantageous. 

For these cases, Bitmovin has 2 solutions. First, we’ve added support for hardware encoding with Nvidia T4 GPUs. They can deliver the same quality of video encoding, up to four times faster than CPUs, with H.264 (AVC) and H.265 (HEVC) codec support. We also have a new “accelerated mode” that uses pre-warmed cloud compute resources, so you no longer have to wait for new instances to be started. This has made a huge impact on overall encoding job turnaround time, lowering queuing times from minutes to <10 seconds.

Ready to get started with split-and-stitch encoding?

Bitmovin’s split-and-stitch encoding with Smart Chunking is enabled by default and doesn’t require any special configuration. You can get started quickly with our dashboard encoding wizard without any coding required. Get going today with our free trial and see the results for yourself by clicking here!

The post Split-and-Stitch Encoding with incredible speed, quality and scale appeared first on Bitmovin.

Leading-edge Innovation over the cloud

Live and on-demand streaming video have become ubiquitous for every use case ranging from Over-the-Top (OTT) video services such as Apple TV+ and HBO Max to eLearning platforms, religious services, music and sporting events, social media, and even internal corporate communications. With their video libraries growing exponentially and most video workflows increasingly adopting cloud-based systems, many search for an easy-to-use, off-the-shelf video encoding solution that they can purchase and deploy in minutes but have trouble finding one. This is where the AWS Marketplace comes in.

Frictionless procurement of video encoding software

To help open Bitmovin’s solutions to a broader audience, we have made Bitmovin Video Encoding available in AWS Marketplace! We chose to list Bitmovin’s Video Encoding in AWS Marketplace because it gives customers using AWS Marketplace to piece together their workflow a frictionless, self-service procurement option with the added benefit of being billed directly through their AWS account.

Bitmovin’s Video Encoding is a fully-managed Software as a Service (SaaS). Powered by massively distributed processing and content-aware encoding, it allows you to deliver stunning viewing experiences at the highest possible visual quality and the lowest bitrates. Unlike other encoding products, Bitmovin Video Encoding supports file-based transcoding, live encoding, and packaging in a single, easy-to-use product.

With support for industry-standard encryption from more than 15 Digital Rights Management (DRM) vendors, studio-grade forensic watermarking, and video resolutions of up to 8K Ultra-High Definition (UHD), you can cost-effectively and securely deliver video to viewers on any device anywhere in the world.

Deliver the highest quality, binge-worthy viewing experiences at a lower cost

Bitmovin’s Video Encoding supports over 50 audio and video codecs and file formats to ingest video from nearly any source. Multi-codec outputs, including H.264, HEVC, AV1, VP9, and others, mean that your audience can watch your content on mobile devices, smart TVs, streaming video player devices, set-top-boxes, web browsers, and game consoles using the most-efficient video codecs for each device type. 

Our content-aware transcoding capabilities, both per-title and per-scene, let you further optimize your Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) ladder to reduce your Content Delivery Network (CDN) cost significantly. It even supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, allowing you to captivate your audience with an immersive sound experience. Similarly, support for High Dynamic Range (HDR), including Dolby Vision, Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG), and HDR10, as well as the ability to convert Dolby Vision inputs to HLG and HDR10, let you deliver visually spectacular video to any HDR-capable viewing device. You can even up-convert Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) video to HDR to rejuvenate your existing content library.

Stream video for any use case

Bitmovin’s Video Encoding is well suited for any industry that streams video over the internet, such as organizations within Media & Entertainment, Broadcast, Publishing, eLearning, Sports and Events, esports, social media, and even Telcos. Additionally, large customers with AWS Enterprise Discount Program (EDP) agreements benefit from purchasing SaaS products through AWS Marketplace because those purchases apply to their EDP commitment.

Check it out!

See how Bitmovin’s Video Encoding, available in AWS Marketplace, can help you quickly and easily harness the power of video streaming for your use case!

The post Bitmovin Video Encoding is now available in AWS Marketplace! appeared first on Bitmovin.