Normal

medium_screen-shot-2021-01-26-at-11-48-47-am.jpg

small_screen-shot-2021-01-26-at-11-48-47-am.jpg

thumbnail_screen-shot-2021-01-26-at-11-48-47-am.jpg

screen-shot-2021-01-26-at-11-48-47-am.jpg

Erikka Innes

large_api-video-blog-product-updates.png

medium_api-video-blog-product-updates.png

small_api-video-blog-product-updates.png

thumbnail_api-video-blog-product-updates.png

api-video-blog-product-updates.png

Product updates

UPDATE: Stay tuned! We'll be back with our contest later this year, after summer vacation and holidays. The contest is post-poned for now. 

api.video is hosting its first contest! We want you to build the coolest thing you can think of with api.video’s API in the language of your choice. To make things easier, we’ve recently released brand new clients to make coding fast and simple. Try one of our clients in [Go](https://docs.api.video/sdks/api-clients/apivideo-go-client), [Java](https://docs.api.video/sdks/api-clients/apivideo-java-client), [C#](https://docs.api.video/sdks/api-clients/apivideo-csharp-client), [Python](https://docs.api.video/sdks/api-clients/apivideo-python-client), [PHP](https://docs.api.video/sdks/api-clients/apivideo-php-client) or [NodeJS](https://docs.api.video/sdks/api-clients/apivideo-nodejs-client). 

[Official Rules / T&C](https://url.video/contestrules)

## What are the judging criteria? 
We will choose the most creative and inspiring implementation of the API, in whatever language you want to program in. Bonus points for Haskell! (Kidding.) 

Each project must include: 
* You must use api.video’s API 
* Upload your project to Github
* Provide a readme file explaining what your project does and how to set it up
* Video demoing or describing your project (you don’t have to appear in it if you don’t want, you can just show off what you’ve made if you prefer)

### Main categories 

Below is the breakdown of the three criteria we will evaluate you on. You can score 0-5 points in each of the following:

**Overall idea / originality:** Is the hack more than just another generic social/mobile/local app? Does it do something entirely novel, or at least take a fresh approach to an old problem? How good and original is the idea? Does it solve a real problem? Usually fun and even silly ideas are good at hackathons but more arbitrary things that nobody gets score low.

**Technical execution:** Is what the participant created hard to do? Does it use cutting edge technology in combination with api.video? Is the project technically feasible? Is the hack technically interesting or difficult? Is it just some lipstick on an API, or were there any technical challenges to surmount when building it?

**Viability:** Is the hack practical? Is it something people would actually use? Does it fulfil a real need that people have? While there is no need for a business plan for the project, the audience and the problem / solution  should still be clearly defined. 

### Bonus points 

You can score additional 2 bonus points for any of the following: user experience, design and polish. Is the hack usable in its current state? Is the user experience smooth? Does it work as the creators say? Is it well designed? Our judges will see and/or want to use your prototype - so make sure it works!

## How do I sign up? 

* You must have an api.video account. If you don’t have one, [sign up](https://dashboard.api.video/register) and follow the steps to create your account.

* Register for the contest with this form here [https://url.video/contest](https://url.video/contest). 

Within 24 hours of when you sign-up for the contest, we’ll give you a $15 credit for an api.video production account. The credit is good for the duration of the contest. 

## When does the contest start and end? July 15th-22nd

The contest starts Thursday, July 15th. The contest lasts for one week, you have until midnight Thursday, July 22th. Because the competition is open to anyone around the world, you may submit by midnight in your timezone. We post the contest results to the forum and the blog on July 28th.

## Where / What do I submit? 

When you are ready to submit, do these things: 
* Post your project on GitHub. 
* Include a readme describing your project, how to set it up, and any other information people will need to understand what you create. 
* Add a video of yourself describing your project! Or if you don’t want to be on camera, a demo of your project. We’d love to see/hear you talking about your work and what inspired you to put this together.
* Send an email to our Developer Relations team at **devrel@api.video** with a link to your project. Include any details or feedback about your experience developing.  

## What can I win?

**1st Prize**: $250 Amazon gift card*, $10 [Open Collective](https://opencollective.com/) gift card to donate to the open source project of your choice and a write up in our blog interviewing you about your project and $75
api.video credit.

**2nd Prize**: $150 Amazon gift card*, $10 Open Collective gift card to donate to the open source project of your choice and a write up in our blog interviewing you about your project and $50 api.video credit

**3rd Prize**: $100 Amazon gift card*, $10 Open Collective gift card to donate to the open source project of your choice and a write up in our blog interviewing you about your project and $25 api.video credit.

**Honorable Mention**: $10 Open Collective gift card to donate to the open source project of your choice, post in our blog interviewing you about your project and  $15 api.video credit.

* Or comparable gift card depending on your location
  

Be part of api.video's first online contest! 

small_blog-preview-a.png

thumbnail_blog-preview-a.png

blog-preview-a.png

Be part of api.video's first online contest! We're looking for the most creative and inspiring implementation of our API

api.video is proud to announce a brand new PHP client for our video API. Our old PHP SDK will be deprecated. You can continue to use it, but it will no longer be updated. Instead, the new PHP client will stay up-to-date with all our new feature releases. 

Like our other clients, it's autogenerated and handles authentication for you, including refreshing your access token when needed. It also handles paginated responses and chunked uploads for large files. A unique aspect of this client is that it is also [PSR-18](https://www.php-fig.org/psr/psr-18/) compliant. This makes it more reusable as it reduces the number of dependencies and lowers the likelihood of version conflicts.

You can install our new client with:
```composer require api-video/php-api-client```

And the entire client is available in the GitHub repository here: 
[https://github.com/apivideo/php-api-client](https://github.com/apivideo/php-api-client)

In addition to the documentation we have at docs.api.video, you can find client-specific documentation in the GitHub repository. If you are looking up parameters, we recommend that you refer to the content provided in the client respository first. Some information may be tweaked to make it easier to create and use the client. There's a docs page for each part of the API here: [https://github.com/apivideo/php-api-client/tree/main/docs/Api](https://github.com/apivideo/php-api-client/tree/main/docs/Api) 

PHP is fast, flexible and widely used in web applications. We hope you'll enjoy using our new client to code your video projects! 



api.video announces a new PHP client

large_php.png

medium_php.png

small_php.png

thumbnail_php.png

php.png

doug.jpg

twitter-brands.svg

Doug Twitter

Doug Sillars

NodeJS

The SDKs for api.video make it easier to get started building with our tools.  Abstracting all the authentication and taking care of a lot of the connections for you, our SDKs help you plug and play api.video into your codebase quickly.  Historically, our most popular SDK has been our NodeJS SDK. 

That said, we had some limitations in our Node SDK: 

* search results included EVERY result without pagination.  This is great if you expect only a few results, but for our power users, this meant thousands of results, slowing the response time, and making parsing difficult.  We wanted to upgrade our SDK to allow for better search results.
* The analytics endpoint was not easy to use (mainly due to above, and a lack of filtering options).

We also had many requests for a TypeScript SDK using the api.video APIs.

When we took all of this feedback to the ecosystem team, they created a new [API Client for NodeJS and Typescript](https://github.com/apivideo/nodejs-api-client).  Our old SDK is still here and not going anywhere, but it is also no longer going to be updated, and all future features will be incorporated into the API client.  There are not that many changes between the two, so a migration will not be that hard (and we've created a [migration guide](https://github.com/apivideo/nodejs-api-client/blob/main/doc/MIGRATE.md) to make it even easier for you!)


New NodeJS/Typescript API Client

small_screenshot-2021-06-03-at-08-23-46.png

thumbnail_screenshot-2021-06-03-at-08-23-46.png

screenshot-2021-06-03-at-08-23-46.png

Python

For all our Python programmers out there, it's finally happened! api.video is releasing a Python client! The repository is here: [https://github.com/apivideo/python-api-client](https://github.com/apivideo/python-api-client). And we invite you to submit code sample showing you use the client to the examples folder here: [https://github.com/apivideo/python-api-client/tree/master/examples](https://github.com/apivideo/python-api-client/tree/master/examples).

It's our first time releasing a Python client, so let us know what you think of it. What do you like about it? What could be improved? We're all ears! 

Our client allows you to make requests with or without threading, depending on your project. It also handles chunked uploads for large files, pagination, and authentication. You'll be able to use everything in api.video's API through the Python client.

Python is an incredible choice when it comes to working with video. Enthusiastic fans of FFMPEG have created many Python bindings you can use to work with FFMPEG directly in your code instead of just at the command line. And you're able to access the powerful OpenCV libraries via Python bindings if your project involves the use of real-time computer vision. 

Python is also a great choice because it's popular, robust, easy-to-learn and well documented. There are many excellent frameworks and libraries that can help you complete all kinds of tasks, and Python is regularly used for big data and machine learning projects. These are often complimentary to video projects, especially if you want to build something like a ratings or recommendation system, or collect analytics about your video content. 

It's a very flexible language, that compliments other languages well. For web applications, you'll find that many use Python for the back end and JavaScript for the front end. These combinations are also well documented, so if you're a newcomer, it's easy to get started. If you're a seasoned developer, there's also lots of details for advanced implementation.

We hope you'll enjoy using the new Python SDK and share your projects with us. Happy coding!

Try api.video's new Python client!

medium_pythonclientapivideo.png

small_pythonclientapivideo.png

thumbnail_pythonclientapivideo.png

pythonclientapivideo.png

Try api.video's new Python client! 

For the first time, we at api.video are offering a C# client for our API! The repository and documentation are available on github at: [https://github.com/apivideo/csharp-api-client](https://github.com/apivideo/csharp-api-client) 

Consume all the incredible features we have for transcoding, hosting, delivery, and analytics while leveraging the power of C#. Our client handles everything including: 
* Pagination
* Chunked uploads for large video files
* Authentication 

You'll be able to combine with powerful frameworks like .NET and Windows Phone 7.1 (Mango). 

C# is an excellent choice to program with due to powerful features in the .NET framework such as the forms engine and the good selection of data types. It's very popular for graphics in video games, virtual reality, and it offers a wide set of powerful libraries for image processing. 

We hope you'll enjoy working with our new C# client. And, if you want to add samples of how to use the client, please feel free to add them to our examples folder here: [https://github.com/apivideo/csharp-api-client/tree/main/examples](https://github.com/apivideo/csharp-api-client/tree/main/examples)

Happy coding!

For the first time ever, api.video is releasing a C# client!

medium_apivideocsharpclient.png

small_apivideocsharpclient.png

thumbnail_apivideocsharpclient.png

apivideocsharpclient.png

Java

The long awaited and much anticipated new Java client for api.video is finally here! api.video's new Java client repository is available here: [https://github.com/apivideo/java-api-client](https://github.com/apivideo/java-api-client). And we've added a folder you can upload Java client code samples to here: [https://github.com/apivideo/java-api-client/tree/main/examples](https://github.com/apivideo/java-api-client/tree/main/examples). We'll also be adding content there. 

The new client will replace api.video's old Java SDK. You can continue to use the old SDK, but it will no longer be updated. The new client lets you work with all features of the api.video API, and handles pagination, chunked uploads, and authentication for you. 

The new Java client also provides you with a progress listener. 

The Java client is a great choice for your project because Java is one of the most popular programming languages in the world. It is incredibly flexible, offering higher cross-functionality and portability than many languages. You can easily add it to web applications, and Java is a good pairing with JavaScript. 

Another useful feature of Java is its multithreading. Using multiple threads allows you to make efficient use of the CPU. Java also provides multimedia and network support, and security is a top priority. You can use a Java binding with OpenCV and there are Java wrappers available for FFMPEG as well. 

We're excited to offer a Java client to everyone and we hope you'll like using it. Please send us any feedback you have, and feel free to add code samples to our repository! We look forward to seeing your projects. Happy coding! 

api.video's new Java client is here! 

medium_apivideojava.png

small_apivideojava.png

thumbnail_apivideojava.png

apivideojava.png

api.video is excited about Golang! That's why we're releasing a brand new Go client. If you're using our old Go SDK, you can continue to do so, but we will no longer make any updates to it. Everything is provided in the new Go client repository - [https://github.com/apivideo/go-api-client](https://github.com/apivideo/go-api-client). 

Detailed documentation is included for the project. If you want to submit code samples for working with our new client, please feel free! Our new Go client includes all api.video endpoints, and it implements some features that can be tricky to handle by yourself, such as: 
* Pagination
* Chunked uploads
* Authentication and token refresh 

A special feature of the Go client is you'll be able to provide your own http client for requests, create your [own contexts](https://golang.org/pkg/context/) and upload files using a reader instead of a file. 

We've also created a folder to store [Go code samples](https://github.com/apivideo/go-api-client/tree/main/examples). Right now it's empty, but we'll be adding content over time. We'd like to invite you to add your own examples for how to complete tasks using the new client as well. 

Go is a great language to work with video in because it's fast, easy to read, and supports concurrency. If you're working with big systems and algorithms that need to run steps out of order, this is a great choice. 

Let us know what you think of our new client, happy coding! 

We're proud to announce our new Go Client for api.video

large_apivideogolang.png

medium_apivideogolang.png

small_apivideogolang.png

thumbnail_apivideogolang.png

apivideogolang.png

small_cedric.webp

thumbnail_cedric.webp

cedric.webp

Cédric Montet

We’re wrapping up a huge Q1 at api.video!
 
This is the perfect moment for a review of what happened these last weeks and what our next milestones are. :)
 
First: **people**! Because nothing reflects more on the product and ‘what’s next’ than the people contributing to it!
 


large_article-cedric.jpg

medium_article-cedric.jpg

small_article-cedric.jpg

thumbnail_article-cedric.jpg

article-cedric.jpg

The team has grown to 26 people in Q1, I’m so happy to have welcomed:
* Erikka (🤝 Developer Relations), Joelle (📈 Growth Product), Julie (🎨 Design) and Thomas (🛠 Full-stack Developer) in the Growth team
* Olivier (🔄 Head of Ecosystem) in the Ecosystem Team
* JB (⛓ Head of core) in the Core Team

and 5 more to be announced these next weeks :)
 
Remote from day 1, it’s awesome to have (in just 6 months) great multi-cultural talents from the US, Italy, UK, France, Australia, China and Russia!
 
Every team will keep hiring this quarter, don't miss our offers [here](https://jobs.api.video/) (or drop us an email at hello@api.video)!

We have released many new features, driven by our roadmap and nurtured by your requests (please [keep adding some](https://roadmap.api.video): meeting your needs is our #1 priority!:
* **Download a high quality MP4 from go.api.video without enabling the MP4 support property**. - Previously, if you downloaded an MP4, you had to do so with the MP4 support property enabled. This was a problem if you didn’t want your end users to be able to download a video. Now, you can download a video through the dashboard no matter the property setting, but the setting still applies for your users.
* **Create a private live stream**. - Everyone’s (yes, really! everyone!) been asking for private live streams and we are proud to announce you can now create them! Just like with private videos, you use a one-time token that a user can use to access a video. This prevents sharing. The token makes the video accessible to a user one time for one web session.
* **Our first webhook, which notifies you whenever a new video is created in api.video**. - We’re also happy to announce that api.video now offers webhooks. What’s currently available is a webhook that notifies you whenever a new video is created. Over time, we’ll add additional triggers. Let us know what you think and what you’d like to see in the future!



large_teamapivideo.png

medium_teamapivideo.png

small_teamapivideo.png

thumbnail_teamapivideo.png

teamapivideo.png

## Adding New Developer Tools
 
You already know our mission: help you make online videos available worldwide as quickly as possible. That means helping you stay focused on your use case without having to spend months frankensteining together a mashup of services (like separate transcoding, storage, CDN, and database solutions).
 
But we wouldn’t be a best in class API without providing you shortcuts to integrate api.video! To make api.video easier to use, we’ve taken the time to build out new tools and improve upon existing ones. We now provide:
* **Two new SDKs: one for Java and one for Golang** - Our new SDKs are auto-generated, meaning we’ll be able to keep them up-to-date with the latest changes to our API much more easily. We’ve rolled out Java and Golang, with plans to roll out additional SDKs for React, Python, and more. As part of the SDK overhaul, we fixed the SDK player so that you can now start a new video when another video finishes playing without needing to create a new player instance. If you have suggestions for what you’d like to see in our SDKs, or what kind of SDK you want, please let us know, we love feedback!
* **Three stand alone modules for analytics tracking: generic, video.js, and hls.js** - We added the stand alone modules for analytics for developers who don’t want to use our player. You can track 3rd party players in detail with these.
* **Survey about no-code platforms to see which they you would want and what features** - For no-code, we wanted to know what platforms are most popular, and which our community would like to see, you can contribute [here](https://community.api.video/c/no-code-solutions/15)!

large_apivideogardens.png

medium_apivideogardens.png

small_apivideogardens.png

thumbnail_apivideogardens.png

apivideogardens.png

## Improving Reliability, Scalability, and Diagnostics
This quarter we learned a lot about site reliability, scalability, and the importance of diagnostic tools for everything we build. The result was we launched our own EDGE Infrastructure!
 
At api.video we deeply believe that the Internet has been for text, not video, and we are all sick of latency, buffering and bad quality when we want to enjoy video content. To drastically improve the whole online video experience, great code is not enough without an infrastructure designed specifically for video.
 
We plan to release our new infrastructure to the EU region in just a few weeks and the US before the end of Q2. We can’t wait to help all of you benefit from this major improvement :)

Last but not least:

<iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/26gsjCZpPolPr3sBy" width="480" height="480" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/latenightseth-thanks-thank-you-26gsjCZpPolPr3sBy">via GIPHY</a></p>

Usages have never been so intense, all metrics — new videos uploaded, transcoded, and delivered — grew three digits this quarter!

It’s fantastic to chat with all of you on a daily basis to discover your use cases, understand your needs and roll up our sleeves to help you succeed!

Let’s pursue this discussion on the [community forum](https://community.api.video) or drop me a line cmontet@api.video!

2021: Wrapping up a great Q1 at api.video

Analytics

SDKs and libraries

JavaScript

How many people have watched my video?

How much of my video are people watching?

Is there a common abandonment time?

Are my users skipping ahead in the video?

These are questions that can be solved with api.video's [analytics](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Analytics).  

## Now available with external players

api.video offers video encoding, hosting, delivery and analytics.  If you do not want to use our player (or already have an integration with another player), you can use your [3rd party player to deliver the video](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/using-api-video-with-external-video-players/). 

Until now, when you used an external player, you lost the opportunity to gain any insights from our analytics engine. We have now launched libraries for [videojs](https://github.com/apivideo/videojs-player-analytics), [hlsjs](https://github.com/apivideo/hlsjs-player-analytics), and a general [analytics package](https://github.com/apivideo/player-analytics), allowing you to integrate api.video analytics into your customized 3rd party video player!

## How does it work?

Let's look at an integration with videoJS. Here's a simple page that loads a video from api.video into videoJS, (and has added in analytics):


```
<head>
  <link href="https://vjs.zencdn.net/7.10.2/video-js.css" rel="stylesheet" />
  <script src="https://vjs.zencdn.net/7.10.2/video.min.js"></script>
  <script src="https://unpkg.com/@api.video/videojs-player-analytics"></script>

  
  
</head>

<body>
  <video
    id="my-video"
    class="video-js"
    controls
    preload="auto"
    width="1280"
    height="720"
    poster="https://cdn.api.video/vod/vi4blUQJFrYWbaG44NChkH27/thumbnail.jpg"
    data-setup="{}"
  >
    <source src="https://cdn.api.video/vod/vi4blUQJFrYWbaG44NChkH27/hls/manifest.m3u8" type="application/x-mpegURL" />
    
      To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a
      web browser that
      <a href="https://videojs.com/html5-video-support/" target="_blank"
        >supports HTML5 video</a
      >
    </p>
  </video>

  <script>
             videojs.registerPlugin('apiVideoAnalytics', VideoJsApiVideoAnalytics);
            
             var player = videojs('my-video');
	         player.apiVideoAnalytics();
			 
         </script>
</body>
```

To add analytics, we add the script in the head of the document:

```
 <script src="https://unpkg.com/@api.video/videojs-player-analytics"></script>
```

and then to add the analytics engine, we add the JavaScript at the end of the page:
* registering the api.video analytics plugin
```
 videojs.registerPlugin('apiVideoAnalytics', VideoJsApiVideoAnalytics);
```
* assigning a variable to the player
```
 var player = videojs('my-video');
```
* connecting the player to the analytics plugin
```
player.apiVideoAnalytics();
```

and that's all there is to it!

## Can I add metadata to the analytics?

Yes! If you replace: 

```
player.apiVideoAnalytics();
```

with:

```
      player.apiVideoAnalytics({
        metadata: {
          player: "videojs"
        }
      });
```

you can collect [dynamic metadata](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/dynamic-metadata/).  In this case, I am assigning the value videojs to the player variable.  Now, whenever anyone watches a video using this videoJS player, it will be recorded in the dynamic metadata as such (so I can break down the playback across different devices).

Querying the analytics, we can see this in action:


```
		{
			"session": {
				"sessionId": "ps4ZrdWqAR8mevHi4IwHoACf",
				"loadedAt": "2021-04-01T11:07:25+00:00",
				"endedAt": "2021-04-01T11:07:25+00:00",
		*		"metadata": [
					{
						"key": "player",
						"value": "videojs"
					}
				]*
			},
			"location": {
				"country": "United Kingdom",
				"city": "Chesham"
			},
			"referrer": {
				"url": "https://jsfiddle.net/",
				"medium": "unknown",
				"source": "unknown",
				"searchTerm": "unknown"
			},
			"device": {
				"type": "computer",
				"vendor": "unknown",
				"model": "Other"
			},
			"os": {
				"name": "Mac OS X",
				"shortname": "Mac OS X",
				"version": "11.2.3"
			},
			"client": {
				"type": "unknown",
				"name": "Chrome",
				"version": "89.0.4389"
			}
		}
```

## Conclusion

We are working to make api.video integrate easily into your infrastructure.  If you use a 3rd party player, you are no longer prevented from using our analytics to study the playback of your videos.

Grab the appropriate library, and try it today!

[videojs](https://github.com/apivideo/videojs-player-analytics)

[hlsjs](https://github.com/apivideo/hlsjs-player-analytics)

[General analyitics package](https://github.com/apivideo/player-analytics)

New feature: Analytics libraries for 3rd party video players!

medium_43160471697fbafef276c.jpg

small_43160471697fbafef276c.jpg

thumbnail_43160471697fbafef276c.jpg

43160471697fbafef276c.jpg

webhooks

## Webhooks

We're super excited to begin rolling out webhooks as a part of api.video. Today we have released our video on demand (VOD) encoding webhook. 

## What are webhooks

Webhooks are callbacks that announce when something has occured (pushing data to you), rather than having to ask whether an event has occurred (polling data from the server).


small_2247608175268b5d4f7o.jpg

thumbnail_2247608175268b5d4f7o.jpg

2247608175268b5d4f7o.jpg

The classic polling interface is children asking "are we there yet?" every few minutes from the backseat of the car.

The classic "pushing" of notifications is your phone telling you when you have a new email message. Your phone is not asking every minute, but the server tells your phone that an email has arrived.

Polling takes more energy - as both sides have to keep asking for data, and depending on the polling interval, can add delays to the process. Pushing data delivers the needed data as soon as it is available - using fewer resources to deliver more timely data.


## Polling for video encoding complete

Before webhooks were launched, you had to poll the [video status](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Videos#retrieve-video-status-and-details) endpoint to know when a video was ready for playback. The ```encoding.playable``` result tells us if one version of the video is ready (typically a low quality version), but if you wanted to wait until a higher quality, like 720p video was encoded, you could look at that size to see when the encoding was completed.

## Webhook encoding events

Our first webhook is the ```video.encoding.quality.completed``` which pushes a message for each quality of each video has been encoded.

For example, when a recently uploaded video was encoded, the webhook received several webhooks: one for each version.  Here is an example:

```
{ type: 'video.encoding.quality.completed',
  emittedAt: '2021-03-23T17:03:39.908Z',
  videoId: 'vi7DWgHCu29smlHThpzEajfs',
  encoding: 'hls',
  quality: '720p' }
```

This tells us that this videoId was encoded as HLS at 720p.  


### Usages

* **Track uploads**: If you allow users to upload videos, you can track every videoId uploaded every day.
* **Display in your app**: Perhaps you only want to display a video when the 720p (or 1080p) video is ready (240p is great, but can be really fuzzy).  You can now use these webhooks to decide when a video can be pushed live.
* **Send your mp4 for analysis**.  Perhaps you would like to do further processing with the mp4 (to add captions, or to performa video moderation). Now, when the webhook alerts you that it is ready, you can begin that secondary processing.

## API calls

[Create webhook](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Webhooks#create-webhook)
[List webhooks](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Webhooks#list-all-webhooks)
[Get webhook](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Webhooks#retrieve-webhook-details)
[Delete webhook](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Webhooks#delete-a-webhook)

## Limitations

* Today, we allow you to have 3 webhook endpoints.  We may allow for more endpoints in the future.
* Each webhook event is sent 3 times. If it fails 3 times, no further attempts are made to deliver the message.
* There is no tracking or history of webhook notifications.
* There is no authentication or certificate validation at this time.

## Live demo

[Webhook a video](https://webhook.a.video) displays encoding events when a video is uploaded. It is connected to the [upload a video](https://upload.a.video) application, so if you upload a video there, you'll see the encoding events in the webhook application.

small_screenshot-2021-03-23-at-17-59-28.png

thumbnail_screenshot-2021-03-23-at-17-59-28.png

screenshot-2021-03-23-at-17-59-28.png

In the screenshot above, you can see multiple encoding events have occurred: for several different videos.  It shows the webhook event, the date & time, the videoId, and the format and size of the encoding.

Rather than display these results, your application can base it's internal logic on these events.

## Conclusion

We're excited to begin launching webhooks, with the first being VOD encoding events. We'll next be working on live stream webhooks, so look for that coming in the near future.

If you have any comments about our webhooks (or any other feature you'd like to see, please leave a post at out [community forum](https://community.api.video).


New feature: Webhooks

codec

video create

Huge pricing update: Introducing video encoding at no cost

small_Blog_Zero Cost.webp

thumbnail_Blog_Zero Cost.webp

Blog_Zero Cost.webp

api.video

Video trends

Modern technology has been helpful for an increasingly fast and simple method of consuming various types of video media, whether it’s a YouTube video, our favorite shows on Netflix, or even catching up with friends across the globe on Zoom. Despite the relative ease of doing anything related to video, a few complex processes take place behind the scenes, away from public view. One such process is video encoding.

Video encoding basically makes the world go around in regards to anything related to video and video content. Thanks to the technologies behind the video encoding process, it has become much easier for people and companies to share video content on the internet. But what exactly is video encoding, and what happens during the process? We’ll take a closer look at this and much more in this handy guide to video encoding.

## What is video encoding?

In a nutshell, video encoding occurs when you take raw video footage, either from a digital camera or an analog film camera, and digitally compress it to make it a more manageable file size. Video encoding happens daily in both professional and personal capacities, and many people don’t realize it.

But, without encoding, services like Netflix and YouTube would not exist – or, at least, not in the same way that it does today. Without it, we couldn’t send videos of our beloved pets to our friends and family as easily as we can today.

## Why is video encoding used?

There are a variety of reasons why video encoding is used, but all factors point to the single function of video encoding – **compression**.

This is done to ensure optimal performance and compatibility with a selected suite of software and hardware, be it for DVD/Blu-ray playback, mobile viewing, online video streaming, or general video editing. A file's video and audio information undergo transformation and compression during the encoding process, all in accordance with the requirements of the selected encoding standard.

On a professional level, the ability to compress raw video into more manageable sizes makes it easier to transmit video content such as training, promotion, presentation, and so on over the internet. 

On a personal level, video encoding makes it much easier to send videos taken from your phone directly to friends and family. Most modern-day personal devices have built-in video encoding capabilities to allow for this to happen without a second thought.

To put things in perspective, uncompressed or unencoded video can have a data rate that’s as low as 3,000 Mbps and as high as 12,000 Mbps, depending on the length and quality of the video recorded. 

**Without encoding, it would take up to days for anyone to not just transmit video, but to be able to consume it, too.**

## Differences between video encoding and video transcoding

You need to be familiar with two more [essential terms related to video encoding](https://api.video/what-is/) – transcoding and codecs.

Transcoding relates to the conversion from one digital encoding format to another. It takes the already encoded video file, decompresses it, and then alters it before re-encoding or compressing it into a different codec. Codecs are what allow encoding to occur in the first place. They are software or hardware that gives us the ability to compress video to make them more easily stored and delivered tightly.

While you may hear “encoding” and “transcoding” used interchangeably, the two terms actually mean different things. Putting it succinctly, encoding is the initial process of compressing a video from a source – such as a camera – into a codec, while transcoding takes an already encoded video file to convert it into a different codec.

## Examples of video codecs

In order to understand video encoding, you must first be familiar with two interrelated terms: [video codecs and video formats](https://api.video/blog/product-updates/every-video-format-codec-and-container-explained/). These also tend to be used interchangeably, but much like the terms encoding and transcoding, they refer to two different things.

Video formats are the type of files in which the compressed video/audio is stored. Also known as a “container”, you can tell what a video format is by looking at the file’s extension — the three to four characters that sit after a period in a file name. Here are some of the most common video formats used today:

* MP4
* FLV
* MOV
* MKV
* LXF
* MXF
* AVI
* WebM
* QT

On the other hand, **the codec is short for “Coder / Decoder” (compression / decompression)** and relates to the video compression algorithms that allow encoding to happen. Over the years, codecs have gone through multiple iterations as it coincides with the increasing sophistication and rise in the quality of filmmaking. 

If you’re a content creator, you might be aware of some of the video codecs that exist today:

- **H.264 – also known as AVC, this is the most widely-used video codec available on every platform and mobile device.**
- H.265 – also known as HEVC, stands for High-Efficiency Video Coding, and it’s slowly overtaking H.264 as the standard. This codec can compress video much more efficiently than its predecessor.
- **VP9 – is an open-source, royalty-free codec developed by Google and is considered the direct competitor of H.265. The video compression codec VP9 was created to reduce file sizes, making streaming videos simpler.**
- **AV1 – is another royalty-free, open-source codec released in 2019 by the non-profit Alliance for Open Media. It was developed to become the successor to Google’s VP9 and contend with HEVC more directly.**

## How do different technologies handle video encoding

As you may have suspected, there are a majority of ways that different technologies handle the video encoding process. Let’s take a look at the most common technologies that use video and how video encoding works on each of them:

### Video editing software

When it comes to video content creation, a majority of people will use one of two video editing software — Adobe Premiere Pro or Apple’s Final Cut Pro. Both of these video editing software handle video encoding in very similar ways: when exporting the finished video.

Depending on which device the video content is recorded on, it will already be encoded and formatted according to the settings of the device. For those using iPhones recording 1080p video at 25 frames per second (FPS), for example, the iPhone will automatically encode the video using H.264 and contain it in a .mov file format. The video editing software will “open up” the container to get to the encoded, compressed video file within so the editing process can begin.

After editing the footage is complete, it will need to be exported, which typically concerns video encoding. The edited raw media taken from a recording device such as a camera will be encoded via the codec of the person’s choosing before being put into a .mp4 container once they’ve hit “export”. As we’ve mentioned before, the most common codec used in video content creation is H.264 for HD videos, with 4K videos using H.265. 

### Websites

Different websites utilize different techniques to handle video encoding – with a majority of the major sites like YouTube, Netflix, and so on using their own technologies to handle the process. A majority of social media websites allow you to upload video files directly onto the site to share, although most of them require the files to be saved in specific containers. 

These websites will take your video file and transcode it before using their own systems and serves to re-encode it to match multiple display resolutions. This process will happen regardless of your video file's original codec and settings. Different websites have different processes, but companies that don’t have the capacity to build their own video encoding systems can use a third-party application programming interface (or API) to handle this process. These APIs act as [dedicated video encoder](https://api.video/what-is/video-encoding/) that allows companies to add on-demand videos to their websites more efficiently.

Using [api.video](https://api.video) as an example, all of the videos submitted to the platform will be transformed into H.264 codec in an MP4 container. This may be done using transmuxing and/or transcoding.

We expect the video bitrate to be lower than 16 Mbps for up to 1080p resolution and 50 Mbps for up to 4K resolution. We accept any bitrates, however, we will scale them down to the limits mentioned because anything above is usually challenging for most viewers’ connection to watch.

### API

The ability to generate, store, and distribute video is made possible via a video API. [api.video](https://api.video)’s solution can be tailored to suit any specific need. 

The backend process of video on demand (VOD) is exceptionally complex, even if you’re a software programmer specializing in video. It is necessary to encode, package, and typically transcode the data before sending it to any of several possible destinations. All of these things, and more, may be done with minimal fuss using api.video.

Our API basically keeps the complexities of streaming media hidden from view, so you can rapidly develop apps with as much control as you need. This saves time and effort so developers can concentrate on making the product.

## Conclusion

As you can see through this video encoding guide, a lot of work goes into making the video you watch and the video you share possible. Without video encoding compressing raw video footage, it could take days to upload and transmit video content over the internet and perhaps even longer to be able to download and enjoy them. 

The best part about encoding at api.video is that is offered at ZERO cost. You will only be charged for delivery and hosting of your videos, and the encoding will be free. Now integrate your videos in minutes with api.video or [contact us](https://api.video/contact/) for more information.

A Guide to Video Encoding & Video Codecs

large_poster-3.png

medium_poster-3.png

small_poster-3.png

thumbnail_poster-3.png

poster-3.png

Encoding and transcoding are often used interchangeably but they have slightly different definitions. **Encoding is the initial process of converting raw video files into a specific digital format or codec.** It involves compressing and packaging the video data, often to reduce file size while maintaining acceptable quality. Encoding prepares the video for storage, transmission, or playback.

&nbsp;

**Transcoding, on the other hand, involves converting a video from one digital format or codec to another.** This is typically done to optimize the video for different devices or platforms, adapt to varying network conditions, or ensure compatibility with specific playback requirements. Transcoding occurs after encoding and often involves changing resolution, bitrates, or formats without altering the content itself.

## What goes on behind encoding a video?

It's easy to say that encoding is when you go from an _uncompressed source_ to a _compressed source_, but you may ask, what exactly do compressed and uncompressed sources mean?

&nbsp;

Uncompressed sources are video files that contain data that comes directly from a camera sensor vs. encoded video. In the digital space, it's SDI (Serial Digital Interface) or HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface). Both of them are popular standards. You'll find HDMI in places like your GoPro camera, or a mini camcorder. These days, you might also find HDMI in professional settings, but SDI is more common due to its reliability. Another example of an uncompressed source would be something analog, for instance, VHS tapes.

&nbsp;

A compressed sources, on the other hand, are video files that have undergone compression during the encoding process. Compression involves reducing the file size by removing unnecessary information or encoding the data in a more efficient format. This process results in a smaller file size, making it more manageable for storage, transmission, and playback.


## What are the types of transcoding methods?

There are three types of transcoding, depending on what you are trying to do to get a video to suit a particular browser, player, or platform:

* **Lossless-to-lossless** - This type of transcoding maintains the quality of your video across formats but allows you to take advantage of better hardware or compression algorithms. 
* **Lossless-to-lossy** - This type of transcoding will decrease your video in quality, but it will benefit you in ways such as – you will get a smaller and/or faster playing file, or a file that is compatible with the requirements of a particular platform, player, or browser.
* **Lossy-to-lossless** - Sometimes people think this means they are regaining quality. This isn't the case in this type of transcoding. If you transcode from a lossy format to a lossless format, all that it means is that you will not lose additional quality in the conversion process. You will not regain data you already lost through compression.

## Codecs for encoding and transcoding

For both encoding and transcoding, you will need to make use of codecs. A codec's job is to compress and decompress video files. It's right there in the name -  **co**mpress **dec**ompress or encode decode. So basically, codec is an algorithm that takes the video and shrinks it or changes it into a format that makes it compatible with the requirements of wherever you want the video to play. There are many codecs because there are many ways to compress a video or livestream for playback.



## What is transmuxing?

Now that you know the difference between encoding and transcoding, let's throw one more term in there - transmuxing. Transmuxing is when you change the container for a video instead of the format. It's a way of repackaging a video to make it compatible somewhere without changing what's in the file. 

&nbsp;

This process is faster than encoding or transcoding and takes less computing power because you only change the container, not the file. It's great when you need to quickly make something available, but the downside is that it doesn't handle things like making multiple video resolutions available. If you choose a container type that's incompatible with your video file, you may also cause compatibility issues, resulting in not being able to play the video.

## In closing

* **Encoding** - Encoding happens when you compress a raw data file from a video camera sensor or an analog source like a VHS tape. 
* **Transcoding** - Transcoding happens when you take an already compressed video file and change it to another format.
* **Transmuxing** - Transmuxing happens when you change the container of a video file but leave the video file untouched. 

We hope that explains the difference between encoding and transcoding clearly. 

_If you are looking for an affordable video API solution that does not burn a hole in your pocket for transcoding and encoding videos, check out our offerings on our [homepage](https://api.video/) or [sign-up for a free account here](https://dashboard.api.video/register)!_

Encoding and transcoding: what's the difference? 

large_EncodingTranscoding.png

medium_EncodingTranscoding.png

small_EncodingTranscoding.png

thumbnail_EncodingTranscoding.png

EncodingTranscoding.png

Once I upload my video, how quickly will it be ready to be viewed?

Our reply to this question has always been “it's really fast.”  And it is really fast. But, the dev team gave me access to the backend database, and pointed me to a few tables that might be helpful (thanks to Thomas Persohn for your patient help!)

Thus armed, I waded into a sea of data to better understand how fast our videos are encoded at api.video

## Encoding

When a video is uploaded to api.video, it is re-encoded to a HLS stream, with several different video dimensions and bitrates.  This allows api.video to deliver properly sized video to all users - no matter the device or network connection. (Read our post on [Responsive video delivery](https://api.video/blog/video-trends/responsive-video-delivery/) to learn more.)

> Summary:  All videos are encoded at 240p, 360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p and 2160p. However, the videos are only encoded up to the initial size of the video (so if the original video is 720p, there will not be 1080p or 2160p versions available). 

**FYI:** For our customers, encoding is absolutely free – we offer adaptive bitrate encoding at zero cost. 

How long does this step take? If a customer uploads a video to our service - they want to know how efficient api.video creates the content for viewing.

### Data in the study

We are constantly making adjustments to our infrastructure to speed the encoding step of our video (and that is one reason this post is dated 2H 2020 - we expect to be faster in early 2021). The last major adjustment was made in mid October, so the data presented in this study from every video uploaded to the api.video service between 15 October and 2 December 2020.

### Parameters that affect encoding

There are 2 major parameters that affect the speed of encoding a new video stream: the output dimensions and the length (duration) of the video.  

#### Dimensions

The output video dimensions have a huge impact on video creation - a 3840 × 2160 (or 4K or 2160p) video has millions more pixels than a 320x240 (240p) video, so it takes a lot longer to create.  In general, the videos exit the encoding process from smallest to largest.

#### Duration

If a video is 30 frames per second, and is 60 seconds long, there are 1800 frames to be created.  If a 30 frame per second video is an hour long 3600s), there are 108,000 frames to be created, so the longer the video - the more time for creation.

## Analysis

To better understand the encoding time, I divided the data by the size of the output video size, and looked at 2 lengths of video  - those under 5 minutes, and videos that are 45-75 minutes long (we are often asked how long a 1 hour video takes to encode).

I calculated encoding time for each bucket of video using percentiles.  

> Quick review - percentiles break the data into 100 evenly sized segments, so the 25th percentile is when 25% of the videos have been encoded. The median is the 50th percentile, and is when 50% of videos have been encoded.  We report here to the 95th percentile for video encoding.

### Short videos - under 5 minutes long

Many of the videos uploaded to api.video are short - under 5 minutes long.  These videos are generally ready to play in a few seconds:



The above chart has a lot of data, the 25, 50, 75, 90 and 95th percentile encoding times for all 6 variants of the video that api.video creates.

The median video is ready to play (at 240p) in 5.6 seconds, but a 720p version will be ready in 15s after encoding begins, and the 4K version will be ready in 37 seconds.

95% of all videos (under 5 minutes) will be playable in 32.6s, and will have 1080p versions ready in just over 2 minutes (140s).

### Long videos - 45 - 75 minutes long

Our most frequently asked question on encoding is "how long for a 1 hour video to be encoded and ready?"  Here are the numbers:


Observant viewers will see there are no 4K videos in this report. At this time, there are very few 4K streams that reach the 1 hour timeframe, and the data was quite noisy.  Hopefully, more of our 'long uploads' will add 4K support, so we can add this metric in our next update.

The median hour long video (red line) will be ready to play (at 240p) in just over 9 minutes (555s), and a 720p version will be ready about 18 minutes after encoding begins (1099s).

95% of hour long videos will have a 240p version ready in 33 minutes, and 720p in 54 (3230s).  the 1080p version will be available for 95% of videos in 108 minutes,

## Conclusion

Short videos will be ready to play - even at high resolution - in under a minute: the median 4K encoding for a short video is 37s. 

Hour long videos take longer to encode, and the median 720p video will be ready in 18 minutes.  95% of 720p videos will be ready to play in 54 minutes.

This is really fast! You can have responsive streaming video ready for your customers in just a few minutes with a simple upload!

That said, our team is working hard in the background to improve our infrastructure to make our encoding speeds even faster! 

We're really excited to have hard numbers to share with you on our encoding speeds, and we cannot wait to re-benchmark this data in 2021 to see how much faster your videos will be encoded as we improve our service.

Do you have questions about api.video or video encoding? Reach out on our [community page](https://community.api.video).


How fast does api.video encode video? 2H 2020 data

medium_gif.jpg

small_gif.jpg

thumbnail_gif.jpg

gif.jpg

Huge pricing update! Introducing video encoding at zero cost

Featured article

# api.video blog

Blog

Follow the api.video Blog to explore tutorials, video use cases, and learn about on-demand and live-streaming video updates.

Video on demand

Live streaming

Analytics

Video infrastructure

Video player

See all features

Online learning

Short-form videos

Marketplace & E-commerce

Video messaging and recording

Quickstart guides

Documentation

Ecosystem catalog

Clients & SDKs

Community

Blog

Demos

Help center

Product updates

Latest product updates from api.video