MediaGration's FFmpeg Transcoder is an advanced transcoding application; conversion and transcoding add-on for Mediagration's Product Creator. It is implemented as an add-on to the MediaGration Product Creator, AJAX eShop and MMCart (these are requirements). The technology is built into Mediagration's (soon-to-be-released) stand-alone Joomla uploader and transcoder component. It is called the FFmpeg Converter add-on because FFmpeg is the core technology.
The FFmpeg Transcoder add-on automatically scans, converts, transcodes and prepares uploaded video and audio files, to ABR HLS compatible m3u8 playlists, ready to stream on any HLS-compatible server. It also prepares all uploaded video and audio files into MPEG-DASH compatible playlists.
The Mediagration FFmpeg Transcoder has API integration with Apache, WMSPanel (Nimble Media Server), Wowza Media Server, Evostream Media Server. It can convert any audio or video format and encode bitrates ranging from 144p to 4K and above (see below screen shots of configuration pages).
Input Formats Supported
The FFmpeg Transcoder add-on will scan and convert every video and audio file format supported by FFmpeg, which includes almost every format in use today.
Video Formats
AVI (Audio Video Interleave) ...
FLV (Flash Video Format)
WMV (Windows Media Video) ...
MOV (Apple QuickTime Movie) ...
MP4 (Moving Pictures Expert Group 4)
FFmpeg accepts far more input formats, See the bottom of this article for a more extensive list of input formats:
Audio Formats Supported
AAC. Advanced Audio Coding
AVI. Audio Video Interleaved
MP3
MP3 VBR
Audible 2, 3 and 4
Apple Lossless.
AIFF
WAV
Output Formats
Although FFmpeg has the ability to output in most video file formats, because of their popularity, the Mediagration Product Creator currently restricts output to HLS and MPEG DASH formats. Options for additional output formats will be added soon.
Setup
Based on default transcoder settings in the back end configuration page, the FFmpeg Converter creates multiple renditions of the uploaded and converted file, based on single or varied bit-rates. That means the videos that stream perfectly, on any device. Here is the workflow performed by the FFmpeg Converter and the Product Creator:
HLS Segmenter - breaks video file into multiple ts-segments suitable for all devices
Processing Video and Audio Products
When used with MMCart, the Product Creator will perform every step necessary to ready the video or audio file for HLSe or MPEG DASH streaming. The FFmpeg Conver add-on for the Product Creator is designed to be used in conjunction with the MMCart's Product Creator, and will automatically upload, process with the FFmpeg converter, then the Product Creator creates one or more video and audio products for each uploaded item.
The merchant simply uploads video files of audio files, and the Product Creator does the rest. The resulting playlist is encrypted before transmitting to an authorized device, for Wowza, Evostream or Nimble Streaming Servers. MediaGration will soon sell a stand-alone version of the FFmpeg Converter, designed to work without MMCart and the Product Creator.
The FFmpeg Converter will convert and process the video file. After it is uploaded, it is examined by FFmpeg, which can automatically determine what type of file (audio or video), and format, and even determine if the file may be corrupted or contain and exploit or malware.
Encoder Profiles and Streaming Configuration
See the below screen shots below showing configuration of the converter, and an example of the converter being used in the Product Creator to create several video products:
FFmpeg Conversion in Product Creator
Below are screen shots of a Product Creator session, where a video files is uploaded, then processed by the FFMPEG converter, then implemented as a MMCart on-demand product, inside of AJAX eShop.
About FFmpeg
FFmpeg is an Open Source software tool that can perform many things with multimedia files, including conversion, transcoding, and more.It can be used as both a command-line tool, and a scripting tool. It's available for most operating systems and is included in most Linux distributions and setups.
FFmpeg is a collection of other software projects that process multimedia files and is often integrated into other software products because it is so powerful. That is precisely why Mediagration uses it in our FFmpeg converter add-on and stand alone application (to be released 12/2017). Below is a more extensive list of input formats:
FFmpeg Input Formats (Complete list)
WebM .webm
Matroska .mkv
Flash Video (FLV) .flv
F4V .flv
Vob .vob VOB
Ogg Video .ogv, .ogg
GIF .gif
GIF .gifv
Multiple-image Network Graphics .mng
AVI .avi AVI
QuickTime File Format .mov, .qt
Windows Media Video .wmv
Raw video format .yuv
RealMedia (RM) .rm
RealMedia Variable Bitrate (RMVB) .rmvb
Advanced Systems Format (ASF) .asf
AMV video format .amv
Modified version of AVI[4]
MPEG-4 Part 14 (MP4) .mp4, .m4p (with DRM), .m4v
MPEG-1 .mpg, .mp2, .mpeg, .mpe, .mpv
MPEG-2 – Video .mpg, .mpeg, .m2v
SVI .svi
3GPP .3gp MPEG-4
3GPP2 .3g2 MPEG-4 Part 12
MPEG-4 Part 2, H.263, H.264
Material Exchange Format (MXF) .mxf MXF
ROQ .roq
Nullsoft Streaming Video (NSV) .nsv NSV
Flash Video (FLV) .flv .f4v .f4p .f4a .f4b
More formats are constantly being added, and there will soon be stand-alone versions for Joomla, Wordpress and PHP.