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BRIGHTCOVE ZENCODER®


VIDEO ENCODING SPEED YOU HAVE TO SEE TO BELIEVE

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High Quality Video vs Reducing Bandwidth

Brightcove experts Carl Rutman and Yuriy Reznik discuss the important role our award-winning context-aware encoding and multi-codec switching have in solving this historically difficult problem.

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Fast. Reliable. And ready for anything.

Zencoder is the cloud-based video encoding platform for anyone who wants to create and deliver content for audiences around the world. With extremely fast transcoding, industry-leading reliability, unmatched input file compatibility, and output support for all connected devices, Zencoder puts the power of on-demand video in your hands, whether you’re sharing to viewers on their phones, on the web – or in their living rooms.

  • Fast encoding in the cloud — including 4K, UHD, and HEVC files
  • Unmatched file compatibility — support for the broadest range of input and output formats
  • Quicker ROI — no upfront investment; pay only for what you use
Get the datasheet
More quality for less money.
Our Context Aware Encoding capability, an Emmy® Award winning technology, delivers improved compression and adaptive bitrate streaming. You don’t have to think about it. Your viewers get a flawless performance, and you win with dramatically reduced bandwidth, storage, and encoding costs. Available with annual contract.
Integrate in hours, not weeks.
It’s true — you can start encoding immediately, and seamlessly integrate your application with our fast and scalable encoding platform in a matter of hours. A well-documented API, easy-to-use API request builder, integration libraries, and world-class support streamline your process and provide an elegant and extendable solution.
File transcoding for web, mobile and adaptive streaming

(H.264, HEVC/H.265, WMV, MPEG-4, MP4, HLS, MPEG-DASH, MSS, VP9 and many more).

TEST PAY-AS-YOU-GO LAUNCH Traction Growth Enterprise
FREE

TEST JOBS
 $0

PER MONTH		 $40

PER MONTH		 $300

PER MONTH		 $2000

PER MONTH		 Contact us for volume pricing
Just taking it for a spin? Run as many test encoding jobs as you need.
 Pay-as-you-go is a great option for sites that are just starting out and don't have much video usage yet. You can upgrade any time. 1,000 MINUTES OF OUTPUT INCLUDED 10,000 MINUTES OF OUTPUT INCLUDED 100,000 MINUTES OF OUTPUT INCLUDED
Outputs are shortened to 5 seconds long.
 and just and just and just
Limited to one concurrent encoding job.
 5¢

PER MINUTE OF OUTPUT VIDEO		 4¢

EACH ADDITIONAL OUTPUT MINUTE		 3¢

EACH ADDITIONAL OUTPUT MINUTE		 2¢

EACH ADDITIONAL OUTPUT MINUTE
Outputs are watermarked.

Test

FREE
TEST JOBS

Just taking it for a spin? Run as many test encoding jobs as you need.

Outputs are shortened to 5 seconds long.

Limited to one concurrent encoding job.

Outputs are watermarked.

Pay-as-you-go

$0
PER MONTH

Pay-as-you-go is a great option for sites that are just starting out and don't have much video usage yet. You can upgrade any time.

5¢
PER MINUTE OF OUTPUT VIDEO

Launch

$40
PER MONTH

1,000 MINUTES OF OUTPUT INCLUDED

and just

4¢
EACH ADDITIONAL OUTPUT MINUTE

Traction

$300
PER MONTH

10,000 MINUTES OF OUTPUT INCLUDED

and just

3¢
EACH ADDITIONAL OUTPUT MINUTE

Growth

$2000
PER MONTH

100,000 MINUTES OF OUTPUT INCLUDED

and just

2¢
EACH ADDITIONAL OUTPUT MINUTE

Enterprise

Contact us for volume pricing

On-Demand Pricing Examples

I need to encode a 1 hour HD video into an ABR ladder with a 1080p, 720p and 360p output variant.

Input: 60 minutes
Output 1: 1920x1080 HEVC HD = 60 minutes x 2 (HD) = 120 minutes
Output 2: 1280x720 H.264 HD = 60 minutes x 2 (HD) = 120 minutes
Output 3: 640x360 H.264 SD = 60 minutes x 1 (SD) = 60 minutes
TOTAL = 120 + 120 + 60 = 300 OUTPUT MINUTES CONSUMED

ADDITIONAL OUTPUT MINUTES CALCULATED WHEN USING THE FOLLOWING FEATURES
FEATURE OUTPUT MINUTE MULTIPLIER
(using HEVC or H.264 Codec)		 OUTPUT MINUTE MULTIPLIER
(using AV1 Codec)
BASELINE ENCODING MULTIPLIERS
RESOLUTION: SD 1X 12X
PREMIUM RESOLUTION: HD 2X 24X
PREMIUM RESOLUTION: UHD 4X 48X
ADDITIONAL ENCODING OPTIONS
AUDIO-ONLY PROCESSING 0.25x
TRANSMUXING .25X
TWO-PASS ENCODING INCLUDED
CONTEXT-AWARE ENCODING (AS PART OF A TRANSCODE JOB) INCLUDED
CONTEXT-AWARE ENCODING (ANALYSIS ONLY MODE) 1X (CAE Encoder Instruction JSON is the Output)
ADDITIONAL PREMIUM FEATURES AVAILABLE
These multipliers are in addition to the base rate multipliers above. See examples section for details.
PREMIUM CONVERSION: INSYNC FRAMEFORMER 6X

Sounds great, now what?

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Check mark iconFlawless viewer experience

Test jobs are free with outputs limited to 5 seconds. This allows you to test and integrate without being charged, dialing in cost-optimized quality-enhanced processing and delivering improved viewer experiences

Check mark iconTRANSMUXING (SAVE 75%)

High-performance transmuxing workflows for existing ABR packages, for example when converting HLS to MPEG DASH.

Check mark iconAUDIO-ONLY

Audio to audio or video to audio transcoding options for premium quality audio-only processing

Check mark iconSTANDARD-DEFINITION (SD)

Output frame size under 1280 x 720 counts as Standard-Definition (SD) content

Check mark iconHIGH-DEFINITION (HD)

Output frame sizes of 1280 x 720 up to 2048 x 1080 count as High-Definition (HD) content

Check mark iconULTRA HIGH-DEFINITION (UHD)

Output frame sizes above 2048 x 1080 and up to 4096 x 2160 count as Ultra High-Definition (UHD) video

Check mark iconCONTEXT AWARE ENCODING (CAE)

CAE analyzes source video complexity to create an ideal encoding profile, automatically applied to Zencoder transcode jobs or exportable to third-party transcoders (using the analysis only mode), saving storage and bandwidth while enhancing viewer experiences.

Check mark iconINSYNC FRAMEFORMER

Premium conversion filter provided by InSync Technology that can optionally be used to perform a set of operations, such as, frame rate conversion, scaling, deinterlacing and/or color space conversion.

Check mark iconHIGH FRAME-RATE / DYNAMIC RANGE SUPPORT

Zencoder supports premium content processing for frame rates up to 240fps and full support for standard (SDR) and high (HDR) workflows.

Additional information


HOW ARE FILE TRANSCODING MINUTES CALCULATED?
Minutes refers to the length in minutes of an output video. So if you encode the full length of a 10 minute video, your total minutes is 10. If you are using multiple outputs and encode your video into 2 different formats, your total minutes for that encoding job is 20.

ABOUT FRAMERATES
SD and HD outputs are limited to 240 fps (frames per second). UHD outputs are limited to 60 fps. Input frame rates are not limited, so you can have a 4K 1000 fps file as an input, but it will be limited to 240 fps as an SD or HD output, and 60 fps as a UHD output.

WHAT HAPPENS IF I USE MORE MINUTES THAN ARE INCLUDED IN MY PLAN?
Minutes beyond those included in the plan will be charged at the rates listed above. For your protection, each package also has a monthly maximum. If you exceed this value in a given month, the account will be suspended until you upgrade to a higher plan or contact support.

Zencoder supported formats
INPUT FORMATS
Container format Audio codecs Video codecs Audio formats Video formats Closed captions
  • TS
  • ISOBMFF MP4 (mp4, m4a, m4v, f4v, f4a, m4b, m4r, f4b, mov, 3gp)
  • MXF
  • ASF
  • AVI
  • WEBM
  • ISOBMFF MOV
  • FLV
  • AC3
  • MPEG-4 AAC
  • MPEG-4 HE-AAC
  • MPEG-4 HE-AAC v2
  • MPEG-1 Layer III (MP3)
  • WEBM
  • ISOBMFF MOV
  • MPEG-1 Layer I,II
  • AMR - WB
  • AMR
  • QCELP
  • Uncompressed (PCM, WAV)
  • Lossless audio(ALAC, FLAC)
  • Windows Media
  • Audio(WMA 1-3)
  • Vorbis
  • MPEG-2
  • H.264/AVC
  • H.265/HEVC
  • JPEG 2000
  • VC-1
  • VC-3/DNxHD
  • H.263
  • MPEG-4 Visual
  • CINEPAK
  • MPEG-1
  • DV/DVCPRO
  • ProRes
  • VP6
  • VP8
  • VP9
  • stereo
  • multi-channel
  • 96kHz+
  • Interlaced
  • HD
  • HDR
  • Dolby Vision (only passthrough)
  • CEA-608 (separated track)
  • a/53 (embedded)
  • SCTE-128 (embedded)

Container Format

  • TS
  • ISOBMFF MP4 (mp4, m4a, m4v, f4v, f4a, m4b, m4r, f4b, mov, 3gp)
  • MXF
  • ASF
  • AVI
  • WEBM
  • ISOBMFF MOV
  • FLV

Audio codecs

  • AC3
  • MPEG-4 AAC
  • MPEG-4 HE-AAC
  • MPEG-4 HE-AAC v2
  • MPEG-1 Layer III (MP3)
  • WEBM
  • ISOBMFF MOV
  • MPEG-1 Layer I,II
  • AMR - WB
  • AMR
  • QCELP
  • Uncompressed (PCM, WAV)
  • Lossless audio(ALAC, FLAC)
  • Windows Media
  • Audio(WMA 1-3)
  • Vorbis

Video codecs

  • MPEG-2
  • H.264/AVC
  • H.265/HEVC
  • JPEG 2000
  • VC-1
  • VC-3/DNxHD
  • H.263
  • MPEG-4 Visual
  • CINEPAK
  • MPEG-1
  • DV/DVCPRO
  • ProRes
  • VP6
  • VP8
  • VP9

Audio Formats

  • stereo
  • multi-channel
  • 96kHz+

Video Formats

  • Interlaced
  • HD
  • HDR
  • Dolby Vision (only passthrough)

Closed captions

  • CEA-608 (separated track)
  • a/53 (embedded)
  • SCTE-128 (embedded)
OUTPUT FORMATS
Container format Audio codecs Video codecs Audio formats Streaming formats Closed captions Encryption and drm
(Only encryption service)
  • TS
  • ISOBMFF (MP4)
  • FLASH
  • MOV
  • WebM
  • AAC
  • ARM
  • MPEG-1 Layer III (MP3)
  • Vorbis
  • Opus
  • H.264/AVC
  • H.265/HEVC
  • VP9
  • VP8
  • AV1
  • stereo
  • multi-channel (up to 8.1)
  • 96kHz+
  • HLS
  • DASH
  • Smooth
  • CEA-608/708
  • WebVTT
  • SCC
  • Playready
  • Widevine
  • Modular
  • Fairplay
  • CENC
  • AES-128

Container Format

  • TS
  • ISOBMFF (MP4)
  • FLASH
  • MOV
  • WebM

Audio codecs

  • AAC
  • ARM
  • MPEG-1 Layer III (MP3)
  • Vorbis
  • Opus

Video codecs

  • H.264/AVC
  • H.265/HEVC
  • VP9
  • VP8
  • AV1

Audio Formats

  • stereo
  • multi-channel (up to 8.1)
  • 96kHz+

Streaming Formats

  • HLS
  • DASH
  • Smooth

Closed Captions

  • CEA-608/708
  • WebVTT
  • SCC

Encryption and drm
(only encryption service)

  • Playready
  • Widevine
  • Modular
  • Fairplay
  • CENC
  • AES-128

Features and benefits

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Free test jobs
Test jobs are free with outputs limited to 5 seconds. That way, you can test and integrate without being charged.
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Auto captioning
Captions are generated by automatically transcribing speech in the audio track to a VTT, SCC, or DFXP file.
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No file size limits
Simply pay by minutes of output.
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Little to no queue times
And no limit on the number of concurrent jobs.
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Email and chat support
Experts are available to answer all your questions.
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Upgrade or downgrade anytime
You can always pick the plan that works for you.

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