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