Video content is a fast-growing part of online communication and internet marketing. We all find videos to be more engaging than text-based or image-based communication, so it’s vital that you’re able to integrate video content into your media strategy.
However, there’s no doubt that video is a more demanding technology than just using text or images when communicating with clients, potential customers, or employees. After all, in order for the viewer to have a seamless experience watching your video, it will have to be compatible with their device and optimized so that it is of the highest quality without causing buffering.
This is why video transcoding can be so useful. Referring to the process of converting video files between different formats, video transcoding is invaluable if you want to ensure that your viewers are having the best possible viewing experience when engaging with your videos.
To learn more about video transcoding and discover how to use it to accelerate your video content, read on.
What is video transcoding?
If you’re a novice in the world of video content, it’s understandable that you might be confused by a term like video transcoding. However, you probably encounter transcoding on a daily basis without even knowing it.
Video transcoding is commonly used on platforms like YouTube to make sure that the videos that you watch are in the right quality for your internet bandwidth, preventing buffering. It’s also present in less obvious places, with some remote software using it to ensure efficient streaming of a remote connection to a PC.
On a technical level, video transcoding will take a video and decode the original file. It will then change that file’s encoding format – as well as other important features such as its resolution or bitrate – so that it is compatible with a different device or internet speed.
Why does video transcoding accelerate video content?
Free to use image from Unsplash
Video transcoding means that viewers who want to watch a video in 4K on their TV will be able to enjoy it in that format, while those who need to watch it in HD on a lower bandwidth on their iPhone will still be able to fully access the video. This applies whether the videos are viewed on video websites, social media platforms, or other devices
Video transcoding is a crucial tool in the world of video marketing. Without transcoding, your video content will be sluggish to load – meaning that it’s a great way to accelerate your video strategies.
For those looking to sell video online, it ensures that your videos load smoothly and are accessible to a wider audience. Here are some of the specific ways in which video transcoding will speed up your video content:
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Smoother compatibility and optimization
If I wanted to watch a specific video about online security measures, I’d technically be accessing a different video on my laptop compared to my phone. This is because different devices and operating systems have different requirements around resolutions, file types, codecs, and bitrates – even if the video seems the same to the viewer.
On top of technical compatibility, every device has distinct criteria for what makes a video optimal for viewing on that device. Video transcoding allows videos to be automatically compatible with different devices and platforms, while also being quickly optimized according to that system’s settings.
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Reduced file sizes
Uploading video content can be a slow process. When it comes to posting longer videos in particular, the large file sizes of videos can slow your internet connection to a snail’s pace. Transcoding can reduce the file sizes of videos so that they can be posted more quickly and shared more easily.
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Increased accessibility
Video transcoding is also an important tool when it comes to making sure that your videos are as accessible as possible. Some video transcoders allow you to add subtitles to your videos, while you can also add different audio tracks to give your video a global reach. By including this increased accessibility in the transcoding process, you won’t have to spend time elsewhere adding subtitles or adapting your audio.
How to use video transcoding
Whether you’re recording a presentation for clients, uploading a short social media clip, or creating a longer how-to video for customers, there’s no doubt that video transcoding is a great way to accelerate the process of producing video content.
If you want to ensure that your videos are compatible with different devices, are uploaded quickly, and are accessible and optimized, you should follow our five principles for accelerating video content with video transcoding:
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Choose the type of video transcoding
Firstly, you should think about which type of transcoding is most suitable for the video in question. If you need to focus on making sure that your video has cross-device compatibility, you should choose format-specific transcoding. This will include converting the specific video file or codec so that it can be viewed across different platforms.
A more specific way of categorizing transcoding is between intraframe and interframe video transcoding. Intraframe video transcoding will encode each individual video frame separately, meaning that the original video quality is maintained. However, this requires higher bitrates and is most relevant for high-quality video editing.
On the other hand, there’s interframe transcoding. This doesn’t have the same levels of image quality but is much more suited to transcoding videos so that they can be uploaded quickly and streamed easily. If you’re a marketer creating a short video explaining how to use your virtual call center, for instance, interframe transcoding would be your best approach.
Choosing the right type of video transcoding is important as it will allow you to strike the right balance between video quality and file size – only you will know what balance is best for your organization’s needs.
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Consider your target audience
A key part of knowing how to accelerate video content with transcoding so that it suits your needs is considering how your audience will consume your videos. While you should always make sure that your videos are compatible with as many platforms as possible, you should focus on ensuring that they’re optimized for those that are most relevant to your audience.
Let’s say that you’re creating a video for business customers explaining how to use a remote management tool. This will primarily need to be optimized for viewing on desktops. On the other hand, a social media marketing video will have to be optimized for viewing on mobile phones.
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Select appropriate codecs and level of bitrate optimization
This information will help you to select the right codecs and bitrate when transcoding videos. Commonly used codecs are H.264 and H.265, which allow you to balance quality and file size. If you want to increase speed when uploading videos, you might choose to convert an H.264 video into an H.265 video, as this will more efficiently compress the video file.
Similarly, you should think about the bitrate of your video, which affects its resolution. If you’re hosting a web conference with multiple different streams on a .mt domain, for instance, you should choose a lower bitrate, while streaming a single, high-resolution video will require a larger bitrate. Optimizing bitrate to your needs will let you tailor your transcoding to each specific video.
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Use hardware acceleration
If you’re looking to speed up video production, encoding, and uploading, you might want to consider accelerating your hardware, especially if you’re a video editor. This is because video production can be a very intensive process, requiring high levels of computational power.
This can include investing in hardware such as GPUs or DSPs, which can elevate your organization’s computational power. Accelerating your hardware will mean that video transcoding can be achieved more quickly, meaning that you see the benefits sooner and that your viewers will be able to access your videos as soon as possible.
You can optimize this process further by employing video editing software, which can provide advanced editing capabilities and enhance the efficiency of your video transcoding workflow.
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Think about streaming and cloud services
However, you shouldn’t just think that video transcoding can only be done more quickly or efficiently with new hardware.
Software such as adaptive bitrate streaming – which changes the bitrate as a viewer watches your video according to that viewer’s specific bandwidth – is a great way to achieve high-quality video content. Before using this, though, you’ll have to transcode your video into multiple different bitrate levels.
Your digital content can also be elevated with a cloud-based video transcoding service. This will essentially move the intensive task of video transcoding to a dedicated cloud server. You won’t have to invest in expensive hardware, while you can more quickly scale the amount of content that you produce. You also won’t have to worry about maintaining your video transcoding hardware.
Start using video transcoding today
If your organization produces any video content, you simply can’t afford not to use video transcoding. By automating the process of optimizing your videos for the requirements of different platforms and devices, you can make sure that your video content always looks up to scratch.
By ensuring that the optimization process is smoother – as well as reducing file sizes – using video transcoding will accelerate your video content production pipeline. With the key principles to using video transcoding in this article, you can start to see the benefits today!
