Zencoder Launches Highly-Optimized HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) Video Preparation for iPhone and iPads
Results in Most Efficient Segmenting for HLS; Lower Video Storage and Delivery Costs for Content Providers
San Francisco(07 Dec 2011)
Zencoder, a leader in high-performance cloud-based video and audio encoding, today announced the immediate availability of highly-optimized HTTP Live Streaming encoding for Apple iOS devices, such as the iPad and iPhone. This allows smaller file sizes with no decrease in quality, and results in real-world storage and delivery savings of up to 10%.
HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), Apple's video streaming standard for iOS devices, uses the MPEG-TS file format. This format was designed for broadcast transmission and storage and adds significant overhead to video files. Because HLS playback only uses a subset of the MPEG-TS format, Zencoder has released HLS segmenting tools that result in file overhead dramatically lower than competitors, and that match the optimization of Apple's own proprietary tools. This means that Zencoder offers the only optimized HTTP Live Streaming implementation available in the cloud. In tests run by a third party, Zencoder segmenting produced files with up to 70% less overhead than Sorenson Media, up to 84% less overhead than Encoding.com, and up to 50% less overhead than Harmonic's ProMedia Carbon.
"Performance is our number one priority, and encoding efficiency is a big part of this. Our optimized MPEG-2 TS output results in smaller files, and this translates into real cost savings for our customers," said Jon Dahl, Zencoder co-founder and CEO.
Jon Brendsel, VP of Products at PBS, an existing Zencoder customer, underscored the significance of this improvement: "In November, PBS served over 88 million streams and hundreds of terabytes of video data to our three iOS video apps. At those levels, file size improvements translate to improved viewing experiences as well as cost savings for PBS."
This is the latest in a series of series of announcements from Zencoder that cement its position as the market leader in cloud-based video encoding. In October, Cloud Harmony released a series of benchmarks demonstrating that Zencoder has the fastest encoding of any cloud provider. Zencoder also recently released its latest volume numbers, and at over 2 million encoded videos per month, is the largest transcoding service in the cloud.
The Zencoder platform delivers a 99.9% encoding success rate, supports the greatest number of input video formats in the industry, and offers the fastest video transcoding available in the cloud. Using a simple REST API, Zencoder's customers can easily access highly scalable, professional-quality video and audio encoding technology without expensive upfront hardware investments or ongoing maintenance fees. Zencoder works with hundreds of customers worldwide, including PBS Television, TwitVid, Posterous, College Humor and Yammer.
About Zencoder
Zencoder is the leader in cloud-based video encoding, with the fastest and most widely used solution in the market. Its products enable content providers to quickly deploy Internet video to consumers on virtually any Internet connected device. Zencoder was founded by Jon Dahl, Brandon Arbini, and Steve Heffernan, a team of engineers intent on removing the complexities of putting video online. Zencoder is also the creator of the web's most popular open-source HTML5 video player, VideoJS, which is available for download here: videojs.com/