How to Choose an Encoding Solution

多年来, the choice of how to capture or encode streaming media content has vacillated back and forth between software and hardware solutions. Software has traditionally been less expensive and somewhat easier to implement since it doesn’t require the extra tweaking often needed with a hardware capture card’s multiple settings.

对于按需场景, the extra processing cycles for software transcodes required to match hardware’s faster transcoding cycles didn’t really matter. 另一方面, 对于实时内容, hardware enabled a better quality image in real time, meaning that encoding of 更高分辨率的内容 needed to be done with more than just an off-the-shelf central processing unit (CPU) used in software-based encoding and transcoding.

简而言之, the need to handle the heavy lifting of a robust encode or transcode in real time or near-real time was an important element of the choice between software and hardware solutions.

Welcome to 2009, where everything you know is changing. 随着两个领域的出现, virtualization and multiple cores, software transcodes (and even some encodes) can be done in real time for robust, 更高分辨率的内容.

比以往更多的选择
The ability to throw multiple CPUs at a transcoding task means the heavy lifting is spread across multiple machines; for those who buy robust machines and transcoding software that takes advantage of newer multicore processors, the use of multiple cores from a single CPU (currently at four cores per processor and expected to grow in 2009 to eight or 16 cores for 台式电脑) can also accomplish the same thing, although not quite at the scale of a virtualization solution.

在硬件方面, the advent of appliances—boxes dedicated to the task of encoding or transcoding, sometimes containing a digital signal processor (DSP), 一个CPU, or even a customized chip (an application-specific integrated circuit, or ASIC)—has also pushed the envelope toward real-time high-definition (HD) encoding and transcoding for 720p and even 1080i/p output.

The need for HD encoding and transcoding is growing, as H.264’s dominance and the expansion of devices that enable users to watch both higher resolution and lower bitrate content is mushrooming. With the mobile video infrastructure experiencing rapid growth rates over the next several years despite the overall global economic slowdown, the need to send content to digital cinemas, iptv, 台式电脑, and mobile devices will require specialized solutions in both encoding and transcoding.

According to In-Stat’s Gerry Kaufhold, even out-of-band mobile content delivery will benefit from encoding and transcoding solutions.

"In spite of the present economic turmoil, consumer interest in mobile video is growing,Kaufhold说。, "and service providers must build infrastructure to be in position when consumer demand recovers. Europe is the largest region for transmission revenue due to the number of countries that have launched, 或者计划推出, mobile-specific out-of-band broadcast networks. Mobile video headends will drive growth for encoders and transcoders to support an increasing number of video channels and display sizes. When the Mobile Internet hits its stride, we’ll see online videos being repurposed for mobile devices."

与美国.S. expected to remain on track to begin deployments of ATSC mobile and hand-held services during 2009 and MediaFLO continuing to expand its market base via the addition of support for many new handsets, In-Stat suggests that mobile video infrastructure revenues alone will reach $291 million in 2012, with transmission network buildouts and mobile-video headends generating a significant share of the revenue increase.