Transcoding is the process of changing an audio or video file from one encoding format to another as a way to increase the number of compatible goal gadgets a media file may be performed on.

Overview

Encoding and transcoding are generally used interchangeably, however the processes, though closely associated, are indeed different.

Encoding is the process of compressing video and audio files to be suitable with a single target device. Transcoding, however, allows for already encoded data to be converted to another encoding format. This process is particularly helpful when users use a number of goal gadgets, akin to completely different mobile phones and web browsers, that don’t all help the identical native codecs or have limited storage capacity.

Encoding is a naturally lossy process, that means that it causes a certain amount of data to be discarded and ultimately decreases audio and video quality. Encoding can use lossless compression, but it leads to decreased compression rates and increased media file sizes.

With that in mind, there are three types of transcoding:

Lossy-to-lossy: This is the least ideal type of transcoding. It means you already have a file with decreased quality and transcoding causes the quality to degrade even further. The only reason to make use of this type of transcoding is to decrease the bitrate and save cupboard space on portable players.

Lossless-to-lossless: By taking advantage of better compression and hardware support a file could be losslessly compressed. This type of transcoding is beneficial for converting to new formats without shedding quality, but the resulting files are often too massive to send to portable devices.

Lossless-to-lossy: This transcoding method causes less quality loss than lossy-to-lossy and produces file sizes sufficiently small for portable devices. You could preserve archives of losslessly compressed files to truly leverage this transcoding method.

There is no such thing as a such thing as lossy-to-lossless transcoding. Once data and quality have been lost in the course of the encoding or transcoding process they can’t be regained.

How Transcoding Works

Transcoding and encoding shouldn’t be confused with transmuxing which only converts the container format similar to MP4 and FLV (Flash). On the other hand, video and audio files are compressed by codecs comparable to VP6 and H.264. Nevertheless, much like transmuxing, transcoding could be executed using FFmpeg, a preferred open supply software designed to deal with all video and audio formats.

Examples of Transcoding

Transcoding is a strong process that is leveraged by major streaming organizations corresponding to Twitch, which truly uses both FFmpeg and its own TwitchTranscoder to stream video and audio on its platform.

The world’s largest provider of user-generated videos, YouTube, receives over 300 hours of uploads every minute—and it makes use of transcoding to make those movies available in 5+ totally different qualities and 5+ different formats. This means the unique uploaded content might be transcoded into over 20 versions. YouTube kicks off the encoding and transcoding process as quickly as the unique upload is full, which is why new videos are sometimes only available in low-resolution until the higher-res movies are transcoded

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