Last Updated: February 25, 2016
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1.828K
· georgiee

You need to transcode/encode a video file? Try Amazon Elastic Transcoder

Today I uploaded 10 video files in HD format with a total size of 1 GByte to a bucket on Amazon S3. I have a 5mbit uplink so it is not the fastest connection and I waited a long time. After the upload the customer told me that the format was wrong. Thanks! I really love waiting for 10 jobs to complete transcoding and uploading. At this point I remembered Amazons Elastic Transcoder Service which I never used because I expected a highly complex, backend tool which is only maintainable by a super duper sysadmin. Anyway today I forced me to read the documentation and I was suprised. That Transcoder is based on Amazon S3 and there is an easy to use web interface.

  1. Tell a source bucket, a target bucket and a thumbnail bucket (This is your pipeline).
  2. On a second tab create a job [1], select your pipeline and bum!

After 5ish minutes all of my video files with a total duration of approx. 20 minutes where done. Transcoded and available on S3. Rocket science! Love it!

For each AWS Account you can transcode 20 minutes for free (10min HD, target size matters). After that each minute will cost you around $0.015 - $0.017, it depends on your region.

Anyone wants to buy my QuickTime 7 or Adobe media encoder license? :)

Introduction:
https://aws.amazon.com/elastictranscoder/
Console:
https://console.aws.amazon.com/elastictranscoder

Next goal: Try another AWS service which I think is only for super duper admins.

[1] *If you need a custom format you have to create your own preset. See https://console.aws.amazon.com/elastictranscoder/#presets: *