Mike Baynton asked about some server side transcoding code he has worked
on this seems appropriate for wikitech-l so I have cc'ed it here.
The current direction is to encourage in-browser client side
transcoding. This offloads the costs of server side transcoding and
maximizes quality letting us supply the transcode settings for
generating theora files from the HD or DV source. Instead of users
uploading intermediary format at low bandwidth & arbitrary encode
quality settings.
I see a few potential directions to take with the transcoder work that
has been done...
1) Firefogg will request two copies one for archival and one for web
streaming. Perhaps we want to create derivatives from the archival
version (say for playback on a mobile device) and we need to re-derive
everything from the archival version.
2) Perhaps the infrastructure you developed may be applicable to dealing
out the tasks of "rendering out of sequences" of video. I have been
working on a web video sequencer/editor that will playback in html5
browsers but will need to be "flattened" to be played in other players,
browsers, put on DVD's etc. The best way to do this will probably be the
Gstreamer's GNonLin library (as used in PiTiVi). More on that later...
3) Perhaps we want to support _arbitrary file formats_ uploads from
users not running firefox in the immediate term? I don't see this as
hugely important. I think people that use video editing software or
people regularly dealing with digital video assets can likely
download/run firefox and handle the one click install of an extension.
3.5) The special case ofcourse is supporting video contributions from
mobile devices that are limited to encoding hardware specific video
codecs... But I think we would wait on this until A) we have the upload
api working, B) have an actual use case. ie lets get uploading photos
from cellphones working first. This use case will likely include
funding given the controlled exposure of applications / services in cell
phone devices. (hopefully that controlled environment issue will change
though) ...ultimately we want to push out patent unencumbered formats
to the "phones" too...
peace,
--michael
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