What is video transcoding? What are the types of Transcoding and it’s importance?

Written By — Rishabh Gupta (https://guptarishabh309.medium.com/)

Video form of content has flourished in the past few years for personal as well as business use. Video-based content is great for marketing and a lot of modern-day campaigns are based around video content aiming to increase their website traffic as well as using it as an effective method to interact with their audience. 

But for any video content to work, it is very essential to focus on the quality of the video. One needs to aim for the highest possible quality of video in order to attract clients to your project. A lot many people consider Video resolution to be the most important part of video content and neglect other important factors such as video bitrate.  

What is Video Bitrate?

Video Bitrate refers to a transfer of video data at a given time. It is the number of bits that are processed in a given unit of time. 

Bits per second (bit/s) is the unit generally used to calculate the bitrate and it often includes prefixes such as Kilo, Giga, Mega, and Tera. One Kilobit per second (kbit/s) is equal to 1000 bits per second while one megabit (mbit/s) is equal to 1000 kilobits per second. Majorly 1 byte per second (1 B/s) is equivalent to 8 bit/s. 

Bitrate is an extremely crucial element for a good video experience. Bitrate value along with high resolution and frame rate defines the quality of the video. Bitrate is the key measure for the size of any video file, simply putting higher bitrate would account for the better quality video while lower bitrate would account for lower quality. HD video is generally in the range of 5-20 Mbps while the standard definition videos are typically within 1-6 Mbps, a high-quality web video would require at least 2Mbps. As for mobile phones, the bitrate is measured in kilobits per second (Kbps). But when using high bitrates, remember that not everyone has exceptional bandwidth, and thus with increasing bitrate the section of audience you can target keeps on reducing.

Bitrate and Bandwidth

While streaming and broadcasting, there is a limit to upload and download transfers. Bandwidth refers to the maximum throughput of the network needed to upload as well as download data. In simpler words, it transfers the data between web pages along with your local network. A larger data requires stronger bandwidth in order to function smoothly. In case the bandwidth is insufficient, it causes a breakpoint and reduces transferring process.

For live streaming purposes, upload speed can be restrictive at times. Considering that the content is shared in real-time, the streamer needs to have a good upload speed while the person who is watching it requires a subsequent download speed in order to have an online stream without any buffering. For a 480p30 stream, you need somewhere around 3 Mbps of upload speed. 

How does Bitrate affect audio and video quality?

Video bitrate is the transfer of  “data bite” at a particular rate. Bits per second is the most basic unit while higher units involve kilobits per second and megabits per second. Having a higher bitrate means that a larger “data bite” is being transferred. Putting in simple words, it means a larger data of the video is being uploaded in a given time. Which in terms is reflected in video with higher quality video relative to its resolution.

Higher bitrate does ensure a better quality of the video but the size of files is also larger. One needs to keep them balanced where the files are not too large that streaming is on continuous buffering mode as server resources for most of the viewers are not capable of processing extensive data bite quickly, or if you go for lower bitrate, the quality of video suffer massively and the video looks unappealing to the viewers. What is the right bitrate is a difficult question to answer. It takes a lot of points into consideration synch as the purpose behind the content, means of delivering, upload speed, etc. As for audio, CD bitrate is meant to be 1,411 kilobits per second (Kbps) while MP3 format can vary from around 96 to 320Kbps and streaming platforms such as Spotify range from around 96 to 160Kbps.

In a scenario where the listener is expected to download a file and store it, a higher bitrate value is good to go for a premium experience but as for live streaming and streaming of data online, it is advisable to choose a lower bitrate for effective stream. But as for audio file, going below 90 Kbps would just lead to a significant drop. 

The most ideal tried and tested video bitrate ranges are- 

  • 4,500 Kbps to 6,000 Kbps for a full HD video along with High Frame Rate(1080p, 60fps)
  • 3,500 to 5,000 Kbps for a full HD video along with standard frame rate (1080p, 30fps)
  • 3,500 to 5,000 Kbps for HD video along with High Frame Rate (720p, 60fps)
  • 2,500 to 4,000 Kbps for HD video with standard frame rate (720p, 30fps)

Mogi’s Proprietary Video Tech with Adaptive Bitrate.

Mogi I/O (www.mogiio.com) is an AI enabled Video & Image Delivery SaaS that helps Content Platforms to Improve Customer Engagement by enabling Buffer free Streaming Experience for the user through a patented multi-CDN upstream architecture called Mogi Streaming Engine, Enhanced experience through quality enhancement and compression of up to 50% both during transcoding itself and Deeper user insights through Advanced Video Analytics.

Mogi’s solutions are available end-to-end (Video Transcoding + Video Player + Mogi Streaming Engine (Multi-CDN delivery) + DRM + Video Analytics) or you can use individual products from the entire suite like just the Video Transcoding. Mogi also provides white label end-to-end plug n play solutions for OTT and EdTech Platforms, with Web, Android and iOS apps as well as a dedicated CMS for OTT and LMS for EdTech. The transcoding architecture’s result includes a highly compressed video of up to 50% with no loss in quality, and if you choose quality enhancement, a 40% compression with enhanced video quality, available in multiple bitrates.

The pricing for products is also very competitive as well, and along with it you get a highly compressed output with the same or higher quality. This means not only your contractual pricing is low due to competitive pricing, your bandwidth consumption reduces, and user experiences increases multifold. It’s a win win for all of us (Users, Clients, Mogi).

If you want to partner with us and access our products, reach out to susheel.srinivas@mogiio.com

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