Video transcoding with AWS Elemental MediaConvert

AWS Elemental MediaConvert is a file-based video transcoding service . It allows you to easily create video-on-demand (VOD) content for broadcast and multiscreen delivery at scale.

Introduction

You can use AWS Elemental MediaConvert for video transcoding as a replacement for Amazon Elastic Transcoder or Soerensen Squeeze services as MediaConvert supports more MIME types. You can g enerate video previews and transcode videos into other formats and sizes. The supported media types can be processed in censhare.

AWS Elemental MediaConvert is a service provided by Amazon Web Services. Use of this service can result in additional costs that are invoiced directly by Amazon Web Services. censhare cannot influence or control these costs and therefore cannot be held responsible for them.

Digital rights management (DRM) is not supported for AWS Elemental MediaConvert.

Supported formats

The AWS Elemental MediaConvert service supports the AVC, HEVC, AV1, Apple ProRes, and MPEG-2 compression standards, including support for advanced color sampling (10-bit 4:2:2). It supports a broad range of adaptive bitrate packaging formats including CMAF, Apple HLS, DASH ISO, and Microsoft Smooth Streaming.

Prerequisites

• A configured AWS account with the correct permissions and prepared S3 buckets .
• A configured file system module for AWS S3 in censhare.
• A configured and activated FFmpeg service and module in censhare to generate previews (still images) for the videos assets.

Prepare AWS Elemental MediaConvert

1. Log in to your AWS account and select AWS Elemental MediaConvert from the Media Service tile on the overview.
2. Create an S3 bucket using the  Amazon S3 console . We can use MediaConvert with input files from Amazon S3.
3. Upload files for transcoding.
4. To enable MediaConvert to read and write from S3 buckets, create an Identity and  Access Management (IAM)  role. I nput from other S3 filesystems are given as direct input to the MediaConvert job. For the MediaConvert role, set READ permissions to your asset buckets.
5. Create a MediaConvert job. Optionally, configure the Timecode settings. You have to do this in MediaConvert and not in censhare.
6. Set up image overlay if needed.
7. Configure the output settings (presets). You can select predefined presets or customize your own. You have to do this in MediaConvert and not in censhare.

Take note of the bucket name, key and secret, the role name and preset ID to configure the service and modules in censhare.

Configure the service 

Have your notes ready on the AWS Elemental MediaConvert settings.

1. Log into the censhare Admin Client.
2. Select Configuration | Services | Video: AWS MediaConvert and double-click Configuration.
3. Select or edit the settings:
   
   • Region
   • Encryption mode: None
   • Enter your AWS S3 bucket name. 
   • Select your MediaConvert roles.
   • Enter your S3 bucket keys and secret.

Configure the modules

Have your notes ready on the AWS Elemental MediaConvert settings.

AWS Elemental MediaConvert

Configure the MediaConvert module for video transcoding. To generate previews for the transcoded files, you must also configure the FFmpeg module.

1. In the censhare Admin Client, double-click Modules | Video: AWS MediaConvert  |  Video Conversion (automatic).
2. Under General setup, select Enabled.
3. Under Trigger events, Asset events, select Create asset, Rebuild video preview, Asset new master file.
4. Under Asset filters, Search set: 
   (Currversion = "0") and (Deletion state = "Not deleted") and (State = "Available") and (Type = "video") 
5. Under Send new asset events, Finished, select Retry execution. This triggers the preview in the FFmpeg module.
6. Under Special setup, enter the Presets ID from the AWS Elemental MediaConvert application and select the file type.

7. Confirm your edits with OK. A custom configuration is created under "Configuration/Module/AWS MediaConvert" below the default configuration.

8. To activate your edits, click Update server configuration on the toolbar of the censhare Admin Client.

Presets are directly configured in the AWS Elemental MediaConvert.

FFmpeg

To generate previews for the transcoded files, configure the FFmpeg module.

1. In the censhare Admin Client, double-click Modules | Video: FFmpeg  |  Video Conversion (automatic).
2. Under General setup, select Enabled.
3. Under Trigger events, Asset events, select Retry execution, Rebuild video preview.
4. Under Asset filters, Search set: 
   (Currversion = "0") and (Deletion state = "Not deleted") and (State = "Available") and (Type = "video")

5. Confirm your edits with OK. A custom configuration is created under "Configuration/Module/FFmpeg" below the default configuration.

6. To activate your edits, click Update server configuration on the toolbar of the censhare Admin Client.

For more information on the module, see Video transcoding with FFmpeg.

Result

The media files are uploaded to the specified AWS bucket and then transcoded. In the AWS console, you can search for submitted jobs and determine whether the jobs have been processed successfully. The converted files are stored as storage items on the video assets and can be processed in censhare.