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Jan Ozer

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I help companies train new technical hires in streaming media-related positions; I also help companies optimize their codec selections and encoding stacks and evaluate new encoders and codecs. I am a contributing editor to Streaming Media Magazine, writing about codecs and encoding tools. I have written multiple authoritative books on video encoding, including Video Encoding by the Numbers: Eliminate the Guesswork from your Streaming Video (https://amzn.to/3kV6R1j) and Learn to Produce Video with FFmpeg: In Thirty Minutes or Less (https://amzn.to/3ZJih7e). I have multiple courses relating to streaming media production, all available at https://bit.ly/slc_courses. I currently work as www.netint.com as a Senior Director in Marketing.

You Are Almost Certainly Wasting Bandwidth Streaming to Mobile Phones

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the VMAF Phone Model which measures VMAF score for viewers watching on a mobile phone. Since then, I gave a presentation at NAB on VMAF and ran some calculations comparing the phone and default models. I share those below. First, have a quick look at the three VMAF models shown on the slide …

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Sisvel Update

I’ve been asked for an update on the Sisvel AV1/VP9 pool situation; here’s what we know. Before beginning, as I wrote about here, I am working as a consultant with Sisvel during the launch. To recap, Sisvel announced their pool late March: Before signing on as a consultant, I wrote two articles for Streaming Media and produced one video interview …

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We Serve Hard Drinks to Men Who Want to Get Drunk Fast

 I just waded through another NAB’s worth of press releases. With depressing frequency, the first few graphs are filled with so much ancillary gobblygook that I often have no idea what the new product or service does after reading them. This invariably brings to mind the classic line from a bar scene in the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, …

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Transparency Alert: I Will Be Working With Sisvel

Just a brief note to let you know that I’ve signed on as a consultant for Sisvel regarding their launch of the AV1 and VP9 patent pools. What? Sisvel just announced patent pools on VP9 and AV1 and was aware that HEVC-related pools were controversial and were concerned about properly communicating its vision and goals. I’ll help them work with …

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Talking on VMAF at the NAB Streaming Summit

Just a quick note to let you know that I’ll be speaking at the NAB Streaming Summit on Using VMAF, Netflix’s Video Encoding Metric to Measure QoE. Description: Netflix uses video quality metric VMAF that combines human vision modeling with machine learning, to make automated encoding decisions in their per-title/per-scene encoding workflow. This presentation will cover what VMAF is, how …

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Free Video: Scaling and Letterboxing in FFmpeg

Embedded below is a free lesson from my course, Produce Videos with FFmpeg: The Beginner’s Course (http://bit.ly/learn_ffmpeg). The previous lesson in the course describes when you can use the -s command to set resolution; this lesson details your options when you can’t. This typically occurs when the display aspect ratio of your output is different from your input, which happens often …

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New Course: Encoding and Packaging for Multiple Screen Delivery

I’m launching a new course entitled Encoding and Packaging for Multiple Screen Delivery. It’s an advanced course detailing how to create and configure encoding ladders using objective quality metrics like VMAF, packaging for DASH/HLS (both static and dynamic), CMAF, per-title encoding, and more. The course is designed for professionals who need to get up to speed on these topics and …

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Interview with Sisvel CEO Mattia Fogliacco About New VP9 and AV1 Patent Pools

In this video, I interviewed Sisvel CEO Mattia Fogliacco about the new VP9 and AV1 patent pools. Our discussion covered: Background on Sisvel Due diligence performed before Sisvel formulated the pool to confirm the validity of their patents Details about the royalty structure and what’s covered by the license (and what’s not covered) The image atop this article comes from …

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Sisvel Announces Patent Pools for VP9 and AV1

Luxembourg-based Sisvel International SA announced patent pools for VP9 and AV1 yesterday targeted at consumer display devices (smartphones, TVs, etc) and consumer non-display devices (set-top boxes and OTT devices). Here’s what we know from this article on Streaming Media) and this Q&A. The standard rate for VP9 is € 0.24 for display devices and € 0.08 for non-display devices, while …

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Fixing FileZilla Write Permission Errors in AWS Instances

My article How to Launch a Cloud Encoding Computer just posted on the Streaming Media Global site. Good thing, too, because I had just started a consulting project that required setting up and encoding on multiple AWS instances. Always handy to have a step-by-step guide, so I printed the article draft and went through it point by point to get …

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