VOD Specifications for transcoding

It is possible to start the transcoding of a file through two ways:

1. Standard: You start the transcoding through the Magine Pro Console. The system will perform a pre-check of your files before transcoding and inform you of any issues that you might need to address.

2. Advanced: You start the transcoding through a direct API call. This allows you transcode more media and audio formats than on the standard path but there will be no pre-check of your files.

General Specifications

The following specifications apply to all files you prepare for transcoding independently of the method you choose.

Requirements for all file paths

• No spaces in file and folder names.

• File and folder names must only contain alphanumeric characters, dash, underscore and dot.

Best practices

• The program starts and ends with 1 second of black and silence.

• Video and audio have passed as few transcoding steps as possible.

• Video and audio has the best possible quality.

• Audio levels are normalised.

• The filename is human readable and identifies the content.

• The filename is free of long and messy internal ID codes.

• Prefer non-interlaced video with integer frame rates.

• Fractional frame rates and/or interlaced video will automatically be converted to best non-interlaced integer frame rate using high-quality resampling.

Video

Fractional frame rates and/or interlaced video will automatically be converted to best non-interlaced integer frame rate using high-quality resampling. Supported frame rates:

Source fps:

• 23.976, 23.98

• 24

• 25

• 29.97

• 30

• 50

• 59.94

• 60

Subtitles

• Separate files, one language per file.

• Subtitles must be provided together with the VOD assets.

• Subrip (.srt) format.

• UTF-8 encoding.

• No formatting or positioning tags.

• Time codes must correctly synchronise with the audio.

• At least one blank line at end of .srt file.

Media containers

• Submit a collection of media containers that include the desired audio, video and subtitle track(s) for an asset.

• Exactly one video track per asset.

Specifications for transcoding through the Magine Pro Console

If you transcode through the Magine Pro Console these codecs for media, audio and subtitles are supported.

Video

Containers and codecs:

Audio

Containers and codecs:

Additional requirements:

• Supported channel layouts are stereo and 5.1 surround. The channels in a layout must be in the same track, e.g. a container could have a number of stereo tracks (2 channels each) and/or some surround tracks (6 channels each).

• Mono tracks which need to be combined to multichannel layouts are not supported.

• Language information about each track in ISO 639-2 format must be correctly set in the container metadata.

• Minimum one stereo audio track per asset, even if surround audio is provided.

• For videos of non 16:9 ratio, black padding will be added to turn it into 16:9.

• Resolution of video must have a minimum width of 640px and height of 480px.

Subtitles

Containers and codecs:

Additional requirements:

• Filename must end with "xyz.srt" where xyz is an ISO 639-2 language code, e.g. "mymovie-eng.srt"

• For ISO 639-2 language codes, check here

Adding support for more formats through the Magine Pro Console

When files and formats are not supported, we want to add support for them if it's possible. This is the process:

1. Provide a sample file.

2. Magine Pro will test this file in platform transcode API.

3. Magine Pro will inspect the file to understand the format.

4. If possible, Magine Pro will implement support for this format in the probing process.

Possible to transcode through the Platform Transcode API

If you transcode through the transcoding API these codecs for media, audio and subtitles are supported.

Video

Containers and codecs:

Audio

Subtitles

Containers and codecs: