Tag: streaming video

  • Making a Movie to Make Better Video Encoding

    Until I read this Verge article, I had assumed that video codecs were a boring affair. In my mind, every few years, the industry would get together and come up with a new standard that promised better compression and better quality for the prevailing formats and screen types and, after some patent licensing back and forth, the industry would standardize around yet another MPEG standard that everyone uses. Rinse and repeat.

    The article was an eye-opening look at how video streamers like Netflix are pushing the envelope on using video codecs. Since one of a video streamer’s core costs is the cost of video bandwidth, it would make sense that they would embrace new compression approaches (like different kinds of compression for different content, etc.) to reduce those costs. As Netflix embraces more live streaming content, it seems they’ll need to create new methods to accommodate.

    But what jumped out to me the most was that, in order to better test and develop the next generation of codec, they produced a real 12 minute noir film called Meridian (you can access it on Netflix, below is someone who uploaded it to YouTube) which presents scenes that have historically been more difficult to encode with conventional video codecs (extreme lights and shadows, cigar smoke and water, rapidly changing light balance, etc).

    Absolutely wild.

    While contributing to the development of new video codecs, Aaron and her team stumbled across another pitfall: video engineers across the industry have been relying on a relatively small corpus of freely available video clips to train and test their codecs and algorithms, and most of those clips didn’t look at all like your typical Netflix show. “The content that they were using that was open was not really tailored to the type of content we were streaming,” recalled Aaron. “So, we created content specifically for testing in the industry.”

    In 2016, Netflix released a 12-minute 4K HDR short film called Meridian that was supposed to remedy this. Meridian looks like a film noir crime story, complete with shots in a dusty office with a fan in the background, a cloudy beach scene with glistening water, and a dark dream sequence that’s full of contrasts. Each of these shots has been crafted for video encoding challenges, and the entire film has been released under a Creative Commons license. The film has since been used by the Fraunhofer Institute and others to evaluate codecs, and its release has been hailed by the Creative Commons foundation as a prime example of “a spirit of cooperation that creates better technical standards.”

    Inside Netflix’s Bet on Advanced Video Encoding
    Janko Roettgers | The Verge

  • The cable bundle of the future

    Charter and Disney recently made peace over the recent ESPN carriage fee dispute.

    Three things are happening in video delivery world that are colliding here:

    1. People are “cutting the cord” as they become less dependent on cable for high quality content (due to things like YouTube and Netflix)
    2. Because you’ve lost the “cable bundle” economics (where cable subscribers would cross-subsidize each other’s viewing — you pay because you really want ESPN & I pay because I really want HBO and, as a result, we both end up paying less for more content), video streaming services like Disney+ inevitably increase prices & introduce ad models to cover their (very high) cost (of content production). This naturally means new bundles will emerge as consumers look to find ways to pay less for more content.
    3. High speed internet today is largely subsidized by the investments from cable industry to deliver video. If ‘cord cutting’ (as in canceling cable) continues, then eventually the cost of high speed internet will go up as it becomes the “main event” for the company’s financials. Given (2), I think this likely means “cable companies” will increasingly become “bundled internet + streaming service” companies soon.

    All this is ironically not that different from the original cable bundle, only this time we have a few new logos (i.e. Netflix) and a little more price transparency since you can see what the unsubsidized streaming video service cost (i.e. Disney+, Hulu, etc.) would be outside of the bundle.

    Charter is taking a page from the book of Amazon and Apple, allowing you to essentially combine your bills. Do you have to get Spectrum cable because that’s the only internet provider in town? Well, soon, you might be able to bundle in your Hulu with Live TV service, too. Multiple services, one bill. That’s a step up from the HBO situation where you’ll have to cancel HBO and then go subscribe directly to Max if you want the pricier 4K version of that service.

    The cable bundle of the future is officially here
    Alex Cranz | The Verge