Fundamental articles on video streaming and video compression.

04 Dec
Fundamentals, News

AV1 Decoding and Hardware Ecosystem: The Future of Video Delivery

TL; DR AV1 is now mainstream. The open, royalty-free codec is supported across all major platforms, browsers, and chipsets. Software led the early adoption. Open decoders like dav1d laid the foundation for AV1 playback before hardware became widespread. Hardware has closed the loop. From mobile SoCs to smart TVs and laptops, every major manufacturer now ships AV1-ready devices. Streaming, broadcast, and RTC leaders have adopted. YouTube, Netflix, Meta, and others now deliver most of their traffic in AV1 for cost, efficiency, and quality gains. AV2 is on the horizon. As 5G, 8K, and AI-based video workflows expand, AV1 readiness will...

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25 Jul
Fundamentals

Short-Drama: The New Content Category Disrupting Global Entertainment

Why platforms creating serialized mobile content need specialized compression technology to compete on quality despite production budget constraintsSections Index The Short-drama Entertainment Revolution Global Market Opportuniity The Production Budget Reality of Short-drama AI-Driven Compression as Production Equalizer Production-Proven Results in Short-drama The First-Mover Advantage in Short-drama Awaiting You Short-drama represents the fastest-growing content category globally, serialized dramatic stories delivered in 1-10 minute episodes designed for mobile consumption. Unlike traditional streaming where users watch 1-2 pieces of content per session, short-drama viewers consume 20-30 episodes in rapid succession, creating unique technical challenges that traditional video infrastructure wasn't designed to handle. This consumption pattern creates...

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09 Jul
Fundamentals, White Papers

Not All Codec Implementations Are Equal

What We’ve Learned from the Edge Table of Contents Why Compression Needs a Second Look  Traditional Compression is Maxed Out AI - A Smarter Way to Compress Video How Our AI-Driven Video Compression Works Why Switch Now? Use Case Snapshots Compression is Strategic   Video is everywhere, and the bar keeps rising. Mobile-first audiences expect instant load times. Smart TVs demand pristine clarity. Nobody tolerates buffering anymore. Every byte you ship to meet that bar costs money. Storage, CDN, encoding - the pipeline is under constant pressure, and it's only getting heavier. Compression has long been treated as a backend afterthought, something engineers tune once...

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13 Jun
Fundamentals

Aurora-VQA: Blind Video Quality Assessment That Thinks Like Your Viewers

The Hidden Gap in Video Experience Metrics Your audience doesn’t care about PSNR or SSIM. They care about whether the video looks good and feels right, especially when watching user-generated content, live sports, or social video on the move. But most platforms still evaluate quality using outdated metrics or rely on manual QA teams and viewer complaints. It doesn’t scale. It doesn’t reflect human perception. And it leaves a massive blind spot in your video experience workflow. That’s why we built Aurora VQA, an AI-powered blind video quality assessment system that works without a reference, sees video the way humans do, and empowers...

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Video encoding compared on ARM vs. Intel x86 processors
18 Jun
Fundamentals

Video Encoding on ARM vs. Intel x86 – Which Is Better?

In this article, we talk about video encoding on ARM processors using benchmarks that show why they are suited for video compression (both from a performance and a pricing standpoint), and compare the results with video compression on Intel x86 (CISC) processors. When it comes to video encoding and building out your video encoding infra and architecture, two factors are critical - how fast the encoding gets done, and the compute cost of getting it done. If you pay less and get a machine with poor specifications - it takes longer to encode; but, if you spend too much on your infrastructure,...

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Video-Encoding-on-a-GPU-Explained-in-Detail
13 Jun
Fundamentals

Video Encoding on a GPU – Explained in Detail

In this article, we talk about video encoding on GPUs, why GPUs are suited for video compression, and compare it with CPU-based video compression.  Video can be compressed using software or hardware video compression solutions/systems. Hardware encoders are machines dedicated for video compression (using FPGA, ASIC, etc.) and software encoders are software products that run on the machine’s CPUs/GPUs.  A lot of video compression is done on CPUs, because of their versatility, complex instruction sets, and frankly, their vast availability. However, as video resolutions and bitrates increase, the limitations of CPUs for encoding video become apparent. And, these limitations can be seen...

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Jan Ozer interviews Zoe Liu at NAB 2024
03 May
AV1, Fundamentals

Jan Ozer interviews Zoe Liu for OTTVerse

At the recently concluded NAB2024, video compression expert Jan Ozer caught up with our CTO and Co-Founder, Zoe Liu to talk to her about the latest in the world of AV1 video compression, Zoe's outlook on the use-cases, live-streaming, next big applications, and more! You can watch the entire video here.For video streaming businesses, AI-driven video compression isn't just a fad, it's a strategic advantage. In a competitive market, delivering high-quality videos efficiently is essential. AI-based compression makes both possible, giving businesses a clear edge. You can start a no-risk, free trial of Visionular's AI-driven video compression on the cloud today and...

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AI Driven Video Compression
09 Apr
Fundamentals

AI-Driven Video Compression: The Future Is Already Here

Video dominates the internet today - be it news, sports, user-generated contents, movies, anime, eSports, etc. There is a huge and insatiable demand for high quality content at low bitrates, while delivering a fabulous streaming experience. But, how do you deliver high-quality video affordably while ensuring viewers get a smooth, buffer-free experience, and ensuring that your business can keep its lights on? This question keeps streaming service engineers up at night. The industry faces mounting pressure to deliver content at increasingly high resolutions and frame rates - 1080p60, 4K, and UHD - for both video-on-demand and live streaming. And viewers have...

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Jan Ozer interviews Zoe Liu on AI in video compression
08 Apr
Fundamentals

Jan Ozer Interviews Zoe Liu on AI-driven Video Compression

Video compression expert Jan Ozer interviewed Zoe Liu, CTO and Co-Founder of Visionular, on the intricacies of AI-driven video compression as part of his preparation for his NAB2024 Streaming Summit talk.  They covered the following topics in this interview -  the role of AI in in the video compression pipeline, why AI is important in video compression, importance of scene classification in video compression, delivering a video compression solution as both an SDK and a cloud offering, the role of CPU-efficiency in video transcoding, AI-driven video compression without GPUs, and much more! If you are a video compression enthusiast and are interested...

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transmuxing vs. transcoding - everything you want to know
29 Mar
Fundamentals

Transmuxing vs. Transcoding – Everything You Need to Know

Transmuxing is the process of changing the format of a digital file without altering the actual content. This article reveals the fundamentals of transmuxing, explains how it streamlines video delivery across devices without altering the content itself. Videos come in a large array of formats, and what plays flawlessly on your phone might stutter and crash on your smart TV – not to mention your Xbox! This is not a new problem, and ensuring compatibility between different file formats and devices is truly a harrowing experience for anyone! But don’t worry. There are heroes in the video conversion and processing world: transmuxing...

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