VoD transcoder

[Daniele_Altomare]

Sorry if this question has been already asked in the past but I’d like to know if this feature is now supported on v4.7.3 or if it’s a work in progress or not planned at all.

As far as I understood, transcoding is only available for live streams, instead if I need “real time” transcoding (or transrating) for a vod application content file, it’s not supported yet.

At the moment the only option is to do the transcoding with another solution (i.e. ffmpeg) and then store the output files in the content folder of the vod application.

Am I missing something new about this?

[Michael_Van_Slambrou]

I’m currently on 4.7.6 and also looking for the option to use transcoding with vod applications. I do not believe that this feature has been added yet, but it would be very beneficial for our installation.

[Alberto_Cabaleiro]

Hello Daniele and Michael,

Thanks for posting your questions on our forum. I’d like to confirm that this is still in our backlog and, hence, there’s no commitment yet on whether it will be implemented and, if so, when. In the meantime, there are a couple of workarounds:

a) To do the pre-transcoding with another solution (e.g. ffmpeg) and then save the output files in the VOD application’s content folder. To enable ABR (adaptive bitrate) HLS streaming via a VOD application, you’ll need to place several renditions of MP4 source files in the content folder and set up a
SMIL file, as explained here: https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-do-adaptive-bitrate-streaming#video-on-demand-adaptive-bitrate-streaming

b) Alternatively, it would be possible to schedule the VOD files to play as live streams, which will allow you to use the Transcoder on them and then record the transcoded streams to your server for ABR use. Optionally, you can also create your SMIL file by calling the pre-configured HTTP Provider as outlined in this article while the stream is active.

To keep up to date with the features added to the latest releases, please feel free to monitor this page: https://www.wowza.com/docs/wowza-streaming-engine-software-updates

Thanks for choosing Wowza and for collaborating in our forum community!

Best regards,

Alberto Cabaleiro

Wowza Support Engineer