Tencent Cloud Recognized as Top Performer in Video Encoding by International Authority Streaming Learning Center

Published : Aug 30, 2022 - 23:41 Updated : Aug 30, 2022 - 23:41

Tencent Cloud's Media Processing Service is proven to have the best in quality and cost efficiency under the H.264 and HEVC per-title encoding standards

HONG KONG, Aug. 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Tencent Cloud – the cloud business of global technology company Tencent – today announced that its Media Processing Service (MPS) has been cited as the top performer in video encoding in two reports recently released by international professional streaming media technology blog Streaming Learning Center (SLC). With the exceptional performance compared to other cloud services providers, the recognition puts Tencent Cloud at the frontline in the key battlefield of encoding technology, which determines businesses' video quality, fluency and bandwidth storage cost.

Video Encoding: An Essential Tool in the Digital Era

Video encoding is an underlying core technology for compressing video files' digital information. It aims to save transmission and storage bandwidth while keeping the video's subjective quality. With the emergence and rapid development of 4K/8K video as well as the pressure on network bandwidth, encoding technology has become a key research area for most internet companies.

Based on the criteria measured by SLC in both its HEVC and H.264 per-title quality reports, Tencent Cloud was found to be the best choice for top heavy, mobile, and IPTV distributions. The HEVC and H.264 are the two most widely used codecs in the world, and both of SLC's reports comprehensively evaluated various key indicators in different scenarios, which include storage and encoding costs, streaming bandwidths, overall video quality and stability, ladder integrity and construction.

Figure 1. An overview of the overall ratings for HEVC per-title distribution, with the lower scores the better. Tencent Cloud’s MPS is the only cloud service provider to receive “excellent rankings” in two distribution patterns.

Figure 2. The bitrates of Tencent Cloud’s MPS are lower than others. It was the best in all three quality measures in overall H264 per-title comparisons.

Both reports highlight the exceptional performance of MPS, emphasizing that while there are multiple factors to consider when choosing cloud service providers, Tencent Cloud should be at the top of the list from a pure cost and quality standpoint. In terms of overall performance and quality, Tencent Cloud is the only cloud service provider to receive "excellent" rankings in all the three distribution patterns of the H.264 per-title report, as well as two distribution patterns of the HEVC per-title report. As for cost efficiency, SLC has also mentioned that Tencent Cloud is the most economic option at various points in both reports. The reports were designed to assist those companies in choosing a cloud encoding provider, particularly for per-title encoding capabilities, and are available for purchase at the Streaming Learning Center.

Poshu Yeung, Senior Vice President, Tencent Cloud International, said, "At Tencent Cloud, we strive to provide enterprises and organizations with the highest possible quality and performance in our services. The result of Streaming Learning Center's study is a testament to the hard work and dedication Tencent Cloud has put into our media solutions capabilities, and the high standards we have set for ourselves as a cloud service provider. Tencent Cloud's Media Processing Service is already used by a wide range of international clients across various industries, and we look forward to supporting more in their digitalization journeys."

Tencent Cloud's MPS is a cloud service that provides high-performance media processing based on cloud-based audio and video media storage, making them suitable for OTT services or playback on PC and mobile devices. In addition to its rich features, it also meets international data compliance and information security requirements. MPS is highly recommended for use in multiple scenarios, such as building video websites and streaming platforms as well as in the television broadcasting industry, online education and OTT Smart TVs.

Figure 3 Tencent Cloud’s MPS public cloud workflow architecture diagram

The service takes into account the needs of privatization scenarios such as self-built IDC and media asset confidentiality in the traditional OTT field, and provides SaaS platform software deployment as well as high-performance codec SDK Lib library access. It helps improve image quality and effectively reduces CDN distribution cost. Furthermore, it provides video frame doubling, noise removal, color, face and font enhancement, and converts from standard- to high-definition resolution, among other features.

Its high-quality and high-performance features currently benefit a wide range of businesses from all around the world, including game streaming platforms GOX and Nimo TV.

Figure 4. This table presents a numbers-only view of the cost and quality of the services for the top-heavy distribution pattern under the H.264 encoding standard, all compared to the convex-hull ladder. Tencent Cloud’s MPS outperforms the others in terms of storage costs, streaming costs and overall VMAF.

Figure 5. Tencent Cloud’s MPS ranks first at 94.34, maintaining the best encoding quality in the most complex picture, and achieving the highest score in the low-frame VMAF metric under the HEVC standard.