Authenticate

live - create

Normal

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Doug Twitter

Doug Sillars

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Tutorials

Live streaming your content is a great way to connect with your audience. In this tutorial, we'll walk through the steps you need to follow to set up a video livestream.

Note: we have example code of setting up a live stream in the [browser](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/live-stream-tutorial/), with [Zoom](https://api.video/blog/video-trends/start-remote-work-with-online-video-and-zoom-us/)
and with [OBS](https://api.video/blog/video-trends/video-live-streaming-in-just-5-easy-steps/).

[Here](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Live-Streams#create-live-stream) is the direct link to the technical docs to create a live stream.

In order to establish a video livestream, you must first create a livestream container at api.video. Then you can begin streaming with the tool of your choice. In this example, the live stream will be created with OBS, free and open source software for video streaming.  

## Creating Live Stream

### Step 1: Authenticate

You need an access_token in order to create and upload a video.

You will need your API key to obtain the access_token. You can find your API key in [your dashoard](https://dashboard.api.video).  

This tutorial uses the sandbox endpoint. To upload your video in production, simply replace all `sandbox.api.video` instances with `ws.api.video`.

First, call the authentication endpoint and get your access token.


#### Example - Curl Request


### Step 2: Create the Live Stream

Now we [create the live stream](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Live-Streams#create-live-stream). In the JSON parameter, feel free to edit the name of the live stream from "Your Stream Name" to whatever you want to name your stream.

#### Example - Curl Request

Your Stream Name

Now the server is ready to accept our live stream, and once broadcast begins (JSON above shows broadcasting:false), it will be viewable on the urls listed in the JSON response.

### Connecting Live Video

The JSON response above lists your live stream's streamKey, which will be needed in OBS to connect your video to the server.

in the OBS application:

1. Esablish a source.  In the sources section, choose a video feed to share.  You could choose to share your screen, or to share your camera (on a Mac: Video Capture Device, and then in the "Device" dropdown choose the camera).  You should now see the video source in the main OBS window.
2. Connect OBS to api.video. Under Settings, choose Stream.  You'll see a choice for service - choose custom.
3. The server should be `rtmp://broadcast.api.video/s` and the `streamKey` is the value you received in the Json when you created the stream. Click OK to accept the changes.
4. Press Start Streaming.
5. Share the embed, iFrame, so that others can watch your stream!


Extra Step:  The default video poster that your users will see is api.video branded.  You can update the thumbnail with an image of your choice:

## Conclusion

That's all it takes. We've walked through the process of creating a livestream at [api.video](https://api.video), and then how to connect that video's streamKey into OBS. Using OBS, we are then able to broadcast video to all our viewers, who can watch using the player (oriframe) url provided by the api.

[Give it a try](https://dashboard.api.video/register), and let us know how it worked for you in our [community forum](https://community.api.video). We're also there to help out if you run into any difficulties.

Create a Live Stream

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Chapters

When uploading a long video, it can be hard for your viewers to scan to the area of the video they are interested in.  Rather than chop your video into smaller segments (and breaking up the continuity of the entire video), you can use chapters to denote placeholders in your video so that your viewers can ‘skip ahead’ or ‘skip back’ to pertinent sections that they want to watch again.

As an example for this post, I’m going to share a video my daughter made for her astronomy class.  In order to show the distance from the sun to the various planets in the Solar System, she used her GPS and walked through our neighborhood placing the planets.  The distance between each planet was scaled based on the size of the sun in her model.  It is a good study of logarithmic distances:

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**The video was 35 minutes long.**
We knew that her teacher would not watch this, so we edited the video so that all of the walking bits were 3x faster than when she was standing at each planet. It was still 13 minutes long. This seemed like a prime example of a video suited for chapters, since it was hard to know when a planet was being placed.

[Chapters](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Chapters#upload-a-chapter)!

Chapters are markers that appear in the video timeline, and help the viewer see different sections of your video.

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In this screenshot, we can see that we are at the “Saturn” section in the video, both from the content on the screen, but also by the annotation on the playback bar. We can also guess that the next chapters are for Uranus, and the last chapter is marking Neptune. (The chapters for the closer-in planets are under the playback bar)

How do we add chapters? With api.video, we simply create a VTT file (the same format that is used for [captions](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/how-to-add-captions-to-your-videos/) with time markers and names for each chapter. In my daughters video, we only named the sections near the planets and left the time traveling space blank:

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I ran the VTT file through a [VTT validator](https://quuz.org/webvtt/) to ensure all the formatting was correct, and then uploaded to api.video using the api command:

After the /video/ path in the URL os the videoId that the captions are associated with, and the en and the end means that they are in english. I used my access token 
[read about how to get your api.video access token](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/authentication-tutorial/), and then finally the path the to planets.vtt file on my local computer.

That’s it! Frankly, the chapter markers on the playback timeline show the logarithmic nature of the distances in the solar system almost as well as my daughter’s video.

Conclusion:

For longer videos, your viewers might be interested in skipping to different sections of the video. Providing chapter markers makes this easier for them. What are your experiences with adding or using chapters in videos? Leave us a note in our [developer community](https://community.api.video) to let us know!

Adding chapters to your videos

Every call made to an api.video API requires an access_token. This tutorial will walk you through the authentication steps.

> NOTE: All of the SDKs abstract out the need for authentication.

You will need your API key to obtain the access_token. You can find your API key in [your Dashboard](https://dashboard.api.video/login).

This tutorial uses the sandbox endpoint. To upload your video in production, simply replace all ```sandbox.api.video``` instances with ```ws.api.video```.

First, call the authentication endpoint and get your access token.

**Example - Curl Request**

**Example - Http Request**
```
POST /auth/api-key HTTP/1.1
Host: sandbox.api.video
Content-Type: application/json
{
	"apiKey": "your_api_key"
}
```

**Example Response:**

The response has the access token and a refresh token. The "expires_in" parameter tells you that the token is valid for 3600 seconds = 1 hour.

## Conclusion

That's all there is to it!  Grab your api_key from [your dashboard](https://dashboard.api.video/login) and give it a try. If you run into any issues, feel free to reach out on our [forum](https://community.api.video), and we'll gladly help out!

Authentication steps

Video upload

video create

curl

api.video can help you simplify your video hosting and [delivery](https://api.video/product/live-stream/). As such, one of the first things you'll want to do is to upload videos and get them loaded into the service. Once you upload the video, we'll take care of transcoding the video into streams for delivery to your users.

The easiest way to upload videos into api.video is using our API, and we'll walk through the steps to use the API and get your video online in this tutorial.

## Using cURL

This tutorial uses curl and HTTP requests to authenticate your session, create a video, and then upload the video. 

This example works for smaller videos, but as your video gets larger, you will want to break the video into smaller bites (bytes?) to facilitate upload.  Here's how do to that using the [command line](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/video-upload-tutorial-large-videos/). 

### Other languages?

We have many tutorials on video upload.  Here are a few links to help you:

* [JavaScript](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/uploading-large-files-with-javascript/).
* [Python](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/upload-a-video-from-your-computer-with-the-api-video-api-python/)
* [PHP](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/helpful-php-scripts-pt-2-upload-videos-from-an-ftp-server/)

We have several [Clients](https://docs.api.video/) for additional platforms that will help you get started uploading videos quickly.

You can also check out the API reference documentation for uploading a video here: 
* [Create a video](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Videos#create-a-video-object)
* [Upload a video](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Videos#upload-a-video)

### Step 1
You need an access_token in order to create and upload a video.

You will need your API key to obtain the access_token. You can find your API key on [your dashboard](https://dashboard.api.video/overview).

This tutorial uses the sandbox endpoint. To upload your video in production, simply replace all ```sandbox.api.video``` instances with ```ws.api.video```.

First, call the authentication endpoint and get your access token.

**Example - Curl Request**

### Step 2
We will use the create video API to create and upload the video.

The ```Authorization: Bearer``` header uses the access_token from the first step. Hint: Make sure to not remove the end ' when pasting in your token.
The ```title``` parameter is required, so you must add a name to your video.
If your video is hosted on a server, you can use ```"source":"url"``` in the JSON to add the video.
If your video is on your local machine, we'll need to do one additional step.

This example also includes the video description.
The response contains links to the video location, and generates a unique identifier ```videoId```.

**Curl Request**

This is a title

### Step 3: Upload the video file.

> In this step, we use the upload endpoint of the API.  You can also use [delegated tokens](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Videos) for the upload. The advantage of delegated tokens is that these are safe to use on a webpage (whereas your authorisation token is not), and the videos are directly uploaded to api.video.  You can learn more about using [delegated tokens](https://api.video/blog/product-updates/video-access-management-how-to-create-deliver-and-manage-private-videos-and-what/) for this same experience.

In Step 2, we saw how to link to a video already hosted. If the video is not hosted, and must be uploaded, we will call the video upload API:

When the upload is complete, a JSON response similar to that of step 2 is returned.

That's it - if you access the assets links in the response JSON - you can begin sharing the video you just created. Note: The mp4 URL is only added to the API response once the mp4 video has been encoded, which may take a few additional seconds.

## Conclusion

In this post, we learned about authentication of our account with our [api.video](https://api.video) token, creating a video container, and uploading a video into that container. Once your video is uploaded, it is ready to be shared with your audience!

If you have any questions or suggestions, please share them on our [commmunity forum](https://community.api.video/). To start building now, singup for an api.video account [here](https://dashboard.api.video/register). Thanks for reading! 

Video upload with cURL

Some videos are large, and when creating and uploading a large video to api.video, there can be transport issues, causing the upload to fail.

When uploading large videos, they must be broken into 100MB chunks to ensure delivery.  While these also may fail, the amount of time lost is minimised, and the segement can be retried.

api.video will reassemble the video segments on the server, and create streams for your users to consume.  
 
NOTE: This tutorial walks through the process of partial video uploads using curl.  The api.video [API Clients](https://docs.api.video/) handle large video uploads automatically, allowing you to skip this process. While this is a great walkthrough of what the clients and SDKs do behind the scenes, we strongly reccomend that you use them, as getting the Content-Range headers correct (in step 4) is tricky.


This tutorial uses curl and HTTP requests to authenticate your session, create a video, and then upload the video.

Another great way to split up large files is to use JavaScript and Blob.slice. We have a [second tutorial](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/uploading-large-files-with-javascript/) for that technique.

Due to limits in how HTTP handles large file uploads, there is an upload limit of 199 MiB per video segment.

However, you can still upload videos over 199 MiB, it just needs to be split into separate chunks (under 200 MiB), and each chunk uploaded separately.

This process works for videos that are less than 200 MiB as well, but has one additional step.


## Step 1

You need an access_token in order to create and upload a video.

You will need your API key to obtain the access_token.  You can find your API key on [your dashboard](https://dashboard.api.video/overview). 

This tutorial uses the sandbox endpoint. To upload your video in production, simply replace all `sandbox.api.video` instances with `ws.api.video`.

First, call the authentication endpoint and get your access token.


### Example - Curl Request

### Step 2 

1. We will use the [create](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Videos#create-a-video-object) API to create a video container.
2. There are many parameters you can use when you create (and upload) a video, but the only required parameter is `title` (the name of your video).
3. The response contains links to the video location, and generates a unique identifier named `videoId`.

#### Curl Request

### Step 3 - Splitting the video
You have created a video container, but have not yet uploaded the video sources.  As mentioned, a video over 199 MiB must be split into smaller chunks.

#### Mac
split is a command line tool built into MacOS.  

1. The first argument is the chunk size (here 100MB)
2. The second argument is path to the source file
3. The third argument is a pattern name for the chunked files
 
This command creates 3 files:

#### Linux
You can use the split utility to split the video into smaller chunks (max 199 MiB).

1. The first argument is the chunk size (here 100MB)
2. The second argument is path to the source file
3. The third argument is a pattern name for the chunked files

This command generated 3 chunk files:

The last chunk is generally smaller than the other ones.

#### Windows
There are a number of free tools that can split a file into chunks.

### Step 4: Uploading video chunks

We will use the [source](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Videos#post_videos-videoid-source) API to add the source files.  Note that the url also contains the `videoId` parameter obtained in the json response from step 2.

To upload by range, you must add the following header to the request:

`Content-Range: bytes <from>-<to>/<total_size>`

- `from` is the **0-indexed** start position  in the file
- `to` is the **0-indexed** end position in the file
- `total_size` is the size of the source file. It must be identical across requests.


#### CURL requests


**Request/response 1:**

And there you go. Your large video should be uploaded and ready to go. If you have any questions or suggestions, please share them on our [community forum](https://community.api.video). You can [start building](https://dashboard.api.video/register) now!

Video upload (large videos) with cURL

captions

Videos are a compelling way to share experiences with your customers. The combination of speech, sounds, images and movement allow us to share a more enriching experience.

However, on the web a video can only be autoplayed when it is muted. As a consumer with small children, this is often a blessing: the last thing I want is a website to wake up a sleeping baby. But as a developer, I want everyone to experience everything my videos have to offer, so I want to work around this issue (but of course, while still letting everyone’s babies nap!)

One solution is to add captions. Users can still engage with your video and follow along with the dialogue. Facebook finds that [videos with captions are watched 12%](https://instapage.com/blog/closed-captioning-mute-videos) longer than videos without captions (85% of Facebook videos are watched without audio). Longer video watch time increases [your search rank](https://www.3playmedia.com/2018/12/10/7-ways-video-transcripts-captions-improve-seo/), and the presence of a captions file even improves your site SEO! With all of these advantages, the accessibility improvements of your website almost come as an afterthought.

No matter the reason you choose to add captions to your videos — you are probably wondering how it is done!

## The VTT File

Closed captioning is typically done with a VTT (Video Text Track) file. They=se are text files that simply list the text that should appear over a specified period:

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In the example above, from 15–17.9 seconds, the text “At the left we can see” will appear on the screen, followed a split second later by “at the right we can see.” It is really a pretty straightforward format. But other than manually transcribing your video, how can you create a VTT file?

Let’s walk through 2 ways:

### VTT Creator

[VTT Creator](https://www.vtt-creator.com/) is a web based tool. You simply upload your video, and as it plays the video back, it creates captions for you.

![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/0*0EV4F_2lV2epjlaB)

The website uploads your video and begins the analysis, and the pane on the left fills with the subtitles

![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/0*XTOA3ZQoSjDk3InB)

You can download the VTT, and you’re good to go!

### Google Speech to Text

Google Cloud, Azure and AWS all have a speech to text tool. I chose Google’s for this demo, but they all operate in much the same way.

Google has a helpful [QuickStart](https://cloud.google.com/speech-to-text/docs/quickstart-client-libraries#client-libraries-install-nodejs) guide to set up your Google Cloud account for Speech to Text. The first step is to use ffmpeg to strip the audio track (there is no need to upload the video track when doing audio analysis).

I used their Node.js code example with a few changes (Code available on [GitHub](https://github.com/dougsillars/subtitles)). The video I was transcribing was over 1 minute long, so I had to host it on a Google Cloud instance. Rather than using:

There is no need to transcode the video to base64 (as described in the tutorial) if it is hosted on Google Cloud. The sample code from Google writes the transcript into the console:

![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/0*PHDqyWCU_PCA4nR8)

This is super cool, but we want more than a transcription — we need those time stamps. The raw JSON file has an entry for each word with the start and end time for each word:

![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/0*jxIPZw0Mr2CFOVLA)

So I created a function that groups words, using the first word’s start time,and the end time of the last word. The length of the phrase can be varied — in the sample code it is set to 10 words. The script outputs a VTT file to the console.

### Adding Captions to your Video

### HTML5

Adding the VTT file to your video is easy. If you are using HTML5 video, you can add a track attribute pointing to the VTT file.
```html
<video autoplay muted controls>
    <source src=”myvideo.webm”>
    <source src=”myvideo.mp4">
    <track default lang=”en” kind=”captions” src=”myvideo.vtt”>
    <track lang=”es” kind=”captions” src=”muvideo-es.vtt”>
</video>
```
### Video Streaming

If you want to add captions to your [api.video](https://api.video) video, you can use the Captions API.

1.  First you must [authenticate](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/authentication-tutorial/) your session to gain an access token.
2.  Determine the videoID of the video you’d like to add the caption to. In this example, I have created captions to [Elephant’s Dream](https://orange.blender.org/) (an Open Source video project). The video ID is: vi5UNyaStzuuj0xTAGp7qtjf

(https://embed.api.video/vod/vi5UNyaStzuuj0xTAGp7qtjf)

3. Make a call to add the [caption](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Captions#upload-a-caption). Using curl, the request looks like:
```bash
curl [https://ws.api.video/videos/vi5UNyaStzuuj0xTAGp7qtjf/captions/en-US]
(https://ws.api.video/videos/vi5UNyaStzuuj0xTAGp7qtjf/captions/en-US) -H ‘Authorization: Bearer {access\_token}’ -F file=@/path/to/google.vtt
```

And we receive a response:
```bash
{“uri”:”/videos/vi5UNyaStzuuj0xTAGp7qtjf/captions/en”,”src”:”https://cdn.api.video/vod/vi5UNyaStzuuj0xTAGp7qtjf/captions/en.vtt","srclang":"en","default":false}
```

Note that captions are off by default. This is easily resolved by patching the video, setting the default to true. Using curl, this looks like:
```bash
 curl -X PATCH [https://ws.api.video/videos/vi5UNyaStzuuj0xTAGp7qtjf/captions/en](https://ws.api.video/videos/vi5UNyaStzuuj0xTAGp7qtjf/captions/e) -H ‘Authorization: Bearer {access\_token}’ -d ‘{“default”: true}’
```

And we receive a response:
```json
{
  “uri”:”/videos/vi5UNyaStzuuj0xTAGp7qtjf/captions/en”,
  ”src”:”https://cdn.api.video/vod/vi5UNyaStzuuj0xTAGp7qtjf/captions/en.vtt",
  "srclang":"en",
  "default":true
}
```

And watching the movie: success! the captions are turned on by default. To autoplay a video with api.video, simply add #autoplay to the end of the url, and we have an autoplaying video with captions.

Now we can rest assured that our videos will likely have more traction, be watched longer, and shared more often. And, we are making our content more accessible to users who cannot hear.

### Conclusion

Video captions not only make your content accessible, but research shows videos with captions are watched longer, and shared more often. And searchable transcriptions actually increase the SEO of your site!

Often there is reluctance to add captions due to the added work, but with just a few clicks of a button, captions can be generated automatically and uploaded for immediate playback.

[Give it a try](https://dashboard.api.video/register), and share your caption successes on the [api.video community forum](https://community.api.video/).

How to add captions to your videos

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Video update

Adding tags is a great way to simplify searches in your video collection - you can simply search for a specific tag to show all of the videos. 

Adding tags is easy, but there are a few tricks you should be aware of. For example this video has the tag "captions":

If I want to add a tag "dialogue", I cannot simply Update the Video with a new caption. The PATCH command will rewrite the "tag" entry.

You can see more about available tagging commands in the API reference documentation: 
* [Update a video](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Videos#update-a-video-object)
* [List all videos](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Videos#list-all-video-objects)

## Best practice

[Show the Video](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Videos#retrieve-a-video-object) to receive a JSON similar to the snippet above.  Collect any existing tags, append the new tag, and then update the video:

and you'll have the correct tags on the video:

## Example of tags in action

[upload.a.video/toDiscord](https://upload.a.video/toDiscord) is an uploader that tags each video with 'Discord'  We then have a way to see all te videos in our collection that have been posted to Discord channels.


## Conclusion

Are you ready to start your video journey, and using tags to help organise your videos? [Sign up now](https://dashboard.api.video/register) to begin testing for free! 

A picture of a set of tags, a pun on video tagging

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Video tagging best practices

Captions allow hearing impaired users to read the words being said in your video. It also improves watch times, and can improve your SEO.

To add captions to your video, you'll need a VTT file for a video already uploaded to api.video.
> [Learn how to create a VTT Video Caption File](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/how-to-add-captions-to-your-videos/)

>[Video Upload Tutorial](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/video-upload-tutorial/)

> Find all details to display your captions in [our docs](https://docs.api.video/reference/api/Captions#retrieve-a-caption)

## Authenticate your session
You will need your API key to obtain the access_token. You can find your API key in [your dashboard](https://dashboard.api.video/login).

First, call the authentication endpoint and get your access token.

Example - Curl Request

replace {videoId} with the videoId of the video to receive captions; {lang} with the language of the video (ex: en-US for US english); and {access_token} with your access token.

### JSON response

### Make captions default

The JSON response above shows that by default, captions are off.  To add them, send a PATCH update command:


## Conclusion

Captions make it easier to watch a video. Not just for hearing impaired users, but for autoplaying videos that begin muted. You users can just read what is happening without sound, and then, if they are interested can un-mute the video. You can also add internationalization by translating the captions to additional languages.

Let us know how you are using captions in our [developer community](https://community.api.video). Happy building!

Adding captions

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codec

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cedric.webp

Cédric Montet

Product updates

At api.video, our goal is for video to be easy and affordable for anyone to build, be it individuals or organizations. We understand that achieving this goal means reducing costs at some stage of the video streaming process. That’s why, we now offer adaptive bitrate encoding for your videos at zero cost. 

&nbsp;

Yes, you heard me right. 

&nbsp;

**Encoding videos will be absolutely free for all video qualities (1080p or 4K) at [api.video](https://api.video/) - no hidden calculations, footer notes or tricks.**

(Check out this [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouosgLbW7Ts) for more details) 


## A step towards making video streaming affordable

Video encoding is crucial as it makes it possible for videos to be shared and played smoothly on the internet. It is why we are easily able to consume 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. Video encoding basically makes the world go around in regards to anything related to video and video content.

&nbsp;

We at api.video recognize that. From [increasing the transcoding and playback speed ](https://api.video/blog/product-updates/2021-in-review/)to building [specialized hardware like ASICs](https://api.video/blog/video-trends/the-comeback-of-specialized-hardware/) cards to increase our transcoding capacities, we've been working to make video streaming easier for you every day. And after dedicating ample time to engaging with our customers and learning about their concerns, free encoding seemed to be the next step in this direction. 

&nbsp;

So, we worked tirelessly behind the scenes to give you what no one else will - free encoding for all video qualities, be it 360p or 4K. 

## How does free video encoding benefit you as a customer

The benefit is straightforward: you save a LOT of money!

&nbsp;

- With free video encoding, you will have one less thing to worry about. As you know, you pay for three things for streaming videos — encoding, hosting, and delivery – out of which encoding is the most expensive, especially if you have a lot of videos. Free video encoding will allow you to focus your attention and resources to what is most important.

&nbsp;

- As the video needs of your app users grow, you might need to scale up your encoding capacity. Free video encoding services will give you the power to scale without any additional costs, meaning your users can handle more videos without increasing your expenses.

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- You can [migrate from your previous provider to api.video](https://api.video/compare/azure-media-services/) without paying an ‘entry tax’ to us. With free video encoding, you no longer need to spend money on encoding videos with a new provider when you have already paid for encoding with an older one.

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Now with all the saved cost, you can allocate your resources and money to a place where it is actually important – building your product and delighting your users. 

## How to get started

To use the free video encoding benefit, getting started is easy. 

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- If you’re a new user, [sign-up](https://dashboard.api.video/register) for a free sandbox account and start uploading your videos
- If you are looking to migrate from another vendor, [import](https://import.api.video/) your videos from your current vendor
- If you have any questions, [talk to us](https://meetings.hubspot.com/apivideo/talk-to-us) by booking a slot in our calendar

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To know more about our[ features](https://api.video/features/), [pricing](https://api.video/pricing/) or ask any other questions, [talk to our team ](https://meetings.hubspot.com/apivideo/talk-to-us)and we will help you out. 

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Or, you can straightaway [sign-up](https://dashboard.api.video/register) for a free sandbox account and check our product out for yourself. 


Huge pricing update: Introducing video encoding at no cost

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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

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Erikka Innes

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?

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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.

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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. 

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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? 

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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

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Huge pricing update! Introducing video encoding at zero cost

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