Editing Flavors in a Transcoding Profile

In the last “Publishing Best Practices” series we provided information about how you can use templates in your publishing and explained what transcoding profiles (Aka Conversion Profiles) are.
This post will get you familiarized with everything you need to know about transcoding flavors properties or the KalturaConversionProfileAssetParams object in Kaltura API, this object links between the conversion profile and its related flavors, it also states each flavor and its unique behavior and properties such as how this flavor impacts entry readiness and what is the flavor generation policy.
So don’t adjust your needs to fit the defaults but rather adjust the defaults to fit your needs.


To edit a transcoding flavor for a transcoding profile

1. Select Settings, Transcoding Settings.
2. Click on a Conversion Flavor.

The Edit Transcoding Flavor Settings window is displayed.

The following options may be edited for each transcoding flavor selected in a Transcoding Profile:

• Impact on Entry Readiness– Determines the impact of each specific transcoding flavor on entry readiness for publishing.The options are:
  • Required –The entry will not be set to a Ready state until the processing of the specific transcoding flavor is complete. To expedite video readiness we recommend applying the ‘Required’ setting to a single flavor that is required for playback on each required environment. For example, if the source file is an MOV that cannot be played on the web, flagging only one lowest quality FLV or MP4 flavor as ‘Required’ will  ensure the video will be published as quickly as possible while the other flavors are being prepared.
  • Optional – The entry may be set to a Ready state before the processing of the specific transcoding flavor is complete. When no other Transcoding Flavor within the Transcoding Profile is set as required, completion of the processing of any Optional flavor sets the entry to the Ready state. We recommend using this option for most flavors to increase speed of readiness.
  • No Impact – Determining entry readiness is not affected by the presence of this transcoding flavor. This is usually the default setting for the “Source” transcoding flavor.
• Use Kaltura Transcoding – Determines whether to use the Kaltura transcoding engine for generating each specific transcoding flavor. This option is enabled only when your account is set to support the ingestion of multiple bit-rate transcoding flavors generated by your local transcoder.  If Kaltura performs transcoding of all flavors except the ‘source’ file, this option should be set to Always.The options are:
  • Always – Kaltura’s transcoding engine always will be used for generating the specific Transcoding Flavor.
  • Never – The Kaltura transcoding engine will not generate the specific transcoding flavor. This is a fixed setting for the “Source Flavor” which always is added to the entry with no additional processing. This option should also be used when your account’s content ingestion workflow relies on a local transcoding engine and when the ingestion of the previously transcoded Flavor to Kaltura should always take place, bypassing Kaltura’s conversion processing.
  • As a Fallback – The system expects to add this transcoding flavor from a local transcoding engine, but will use Kaltura’s transcoding engine as a fallback to convert to this flavor when the flavor is not received as part of the ingestion request. This option adds flexibility when you want to use your local transcoding engine while utilizing Kaltura’s transcoding engine as a fallback option.
  • System Name – (Optional) Enables automated ingestion of transcoding flavors from a local transcoding engine.
  • Flavor Generation Policy
    • Use Kaltura’s Optimization – Use Kaltura’s transcoding optimization module.
    • Force Flavor Generation – Kaltura’s transcoding optimization module may not create a certain flavor if it is detected as a redundant flavor, for example: a flavor with a higher quality than the source flavor.  Select this option to ensure all flavors are created regardless of their quality.

Stay tuned for more publishing best practices where we will cover more options to improve your publishing workflows.
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