Can I cancel a job that I submitted?

We allow for job cancellation within 15 seconds of submitting the job, see our <a href="https://docs.dolby.io/media-apis/docs/how-to-cancel-a-job" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">How-To guide for canceling a job</a>.

Can I transcode into HLS output?

Yes, we support HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) streaming outputs with the ability to either automatically determine what the output renditions are or we allow you to manually specify each layer. See our <a href="https://docs.dolby.io/media-apis/docs/how-to-transcode-to-hls-streaming-format" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">How-To guide for HLS</a> for more information.

Can I transcode into MPEG-DASH streaming?

Yes, we support MPEG-DASH streaming outputs with the ability to either automatically determine what the output renditions are or we allow you to manually specify each layer. See our <a href="https://docs.dolby.io/media-apis/docs/how-to-transcode-to-hls-streaming-format" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">How-To guide for HLS</a> for more information.

I need help, how do I get support?

We offer real-human support. Connect with our support team on the <a href="https://support.dolbyiodev.wpengine.com/hc/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">support page</a>.

Media APIs

Transcode

Convert media files to the format you need for on-demand web and multi-screen distribution. With support for high resolution, high frame rates, and web and streaming formats, you can build a media pipeline with just a few API calls.

Overview

Transcode and assemble

Content that looks and sounds great no matter the device or where it’s viewed

Smart by default

No need for deep media knowledge to get professional results

Scale where you need it

Built on a platform that powers encoding and conversion for major media companies

Advanced technology

Dolby is a leader in media codecs and processing research and development

Transparent pricing, no commitments

Competitive rates with pay-as-you-go pricing

Complete cloud media platform for developers

Our APIs let you analyze your media, enhance it by removing unwanted distractions, and prepare it for distribution with mastering and transcoding capabilities

Features

Flexible media transcoding

Editing and composition

✓ Joining / stitching
✓ Graphic and text overlays
✓ Audio enhancement

Output formats

Video
✓ MP4s with H264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC)
✓ WebM with VP8, VP9

Audio
✓ WAV, MP3, OGG, AAC, Opus, Vorbis

Adaptive bitrate (ABR)

✓ Easy to use packaging
✓ HTTP live streaming (HLS)
✓ MPEG-DASH

Multi-cloud

✓ Amazon
✓ Google Cloud
✓ Azure

Demo

Enhance, personalize, edit and convert videos programmatically in the cloud

See how the Dolby.io Media APIs can help you enhance and transcode your media files in no time. In this example, the Dolby.io Enhance API is used to clean up, normalize, and improve the audio quality of user-generated content. The Dolby.io Transcode API is used to add overlays, trim and stitch clips, and create multiple output formats for distribution. Use one or several Dolby.io Media APIs to quickly and easily automate your media workflows. You’re even able to enhance audio while you transcode for optimal efficiency and improved audio.

Developer Platform

Developer Resources

Public docs

Learn from our getting started guides, tutorials, how-to articles, and interactive API reference explorer.

Sample projects

Start with one of the open-source sample projects on GitHub to accelerate building your application.

Self-service dashboard

Create and manage your application API Keys.
Monitor account usage, billing, subscription plans, and invoices.
Manage access for your team with an enterprise account and get quick access to support.

Documentation

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Developer blog

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FAQs

What is the Dolby.io Transcode API?

The Dolby.io Transcode API is an API-driven media conversion platform for simply creating high-quality, file-based video workflows. It is designed to help developers add video into their apps very quickly without the need to be a media engineer. Easily create single files or many files, including multi-screen delivery with HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) or MPEG-DASH.

Who/which industry vertical can use the Dolby.io Transcode API?

Anyone who processes media can benefit from the Dolby.io Transcode API. From developers who need to handle large volumes of user-generated content, product or personalized video, educational video, or if you need to convert a recorded video conference for broader distribution.

Why should I choose the Dolby.io Transcode API over other cloud encoding services?

The Dolby.io Transcode API makes it easy to get started creating high-quality media quickly for any screen. With the Transcode API, we offer the most frequently used video codecs including AVC, HEVC, VP8, and VP9. Our outputs are already optimized for web delivery so that you don’t need to think about any advanced configuration to easily deliver your media to any screen with Adaptive Bitrate streaming using HLS or DASH. We offer some advanced capabilities such as video concatenation/stitching and trimming with more to come. The Dolby.io Transcode API is one piece in a series of APIs to make your content look and sound its best anywhere it is played. Our pricing is simple and transparent. We guarantee there are no maintenance or hidden charges.

How is the Dolby.io Transcode API related to other Dolby.io Media API products?

The Transcode API is just one tool in a rich toolset of media APIs from Dolby.io. These APIs are built for developers with any level of experience working with media content to bring the magic of Dolby’s decades of experience in audio and video processing to a developer’s workflow at any scale. Whether your content is noisy, isn’t the right volume, or just doesn’t “feel right,” we’re here to help. Our APIs analyze your media, figure out how to optimally enhance it, and apply just the right amount of processing to make your content look and sound its best. Integrating our APIs into your existing media workflow is seamless. For example, you can first improve the sound of your media with the Enhance API, and then distribute it with the Transcode API. If you’ve recorded a video conference with our Communications API, you can easily convert it to HLS for multi-screen playback.

What future capabilities can I expect from the Dolby.io Transcode API?

All of the conversions that a developer would need for streaming and web delivery are possible with the Transcode API. Make your media compatible with any screen with HLS and Dash Adaptive Bitrate streaming outputs. Stitch videos together to personalize content viewing experience for the right audience. Enhance and normalize your audio with our Enhance API then convert it to a compatible format such as mp3 or mp4 with the Transcode API. Compress large video files to smaller and more manageable sizes for distribution and delivery to streamline CDN costs.

Can I use the Dolby.io Transcode API with my other workflow vendors?

The Dolby.io Transcode API is designed to be a flexible component in a larger media processing toolset. With our seamless multi-cloud storage integration for Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, and Google Storage, you can take source videos from one provider as input and write them cross-cloud to any other provider. We accept a wide array of input audio and video formats output from other media applications and can normalize user-generated content for consistent output. Take our HLS and Dash streaming outputs and deliver via any CDN of your choice.

Can I use the Dolby.io Transcode API with live videos?

The Transcode API is a file-based workflow. You can take the result of a video conference or event (commonly a downloadable mp4 recording) after the event ends. You can quickly convert the event video to a streaming format such as HLS or DASH so that a viewer can have an optimized viewing experience regardless of their device type or quality of internet connection.

How is the Dolby.io Transcode API different from Dolby Hybrik?

While the Dolby.io Transcode API and Dolby Hybrik are built with the same core technology, the Dolby.io Transcode API has pricing based on output transcoding durations, is billed based on usage, and a simplified API interface accessible for developers. The Dolby.io Transcode API offers advanced configuration and features, while Dolby Hybrik is a complete enterprise solution for workflow management and outputs a wider variety of formats and has a significantly higher cost of entry. For more information on Dolby Hybrik, refer to Dolby Hybrik‘s Overview.

What is the fastest way to get started testing the Dolby.io Transcode API?

We recommend following our Getting Started guide which walks through the basics of what our requests look like in about 10 minutes with full sample code examples. From there, you can walk through our How-To/Tutorial guides to begin learning common use cases and customizing your API calls, and learning how to connect to your own cloud storage.

It looks like you don’t support a feature that I need, how can I submit a feature request?

We would love to hear about how we can help solve your problems, please contact us.

What is the maximum number of jobs that can be submitted/processed at once?

The Dolby.io APIs are designed for scale. There isn’t a limit on the number of jobs that can be processed at once. We use a modern architecture to process high volumes of content in parallel.

What is the maximum number of outputs per job?

The Dolby.io Transcode API is designed to scale horizontally. With a high number of outputs, we will spread the work across multiple rendering nodes automatically so that you don’t have to worry about those details. A common example would be 10 or more outputs created for an HLS or DASH adaptive bitrate output. The Transcode API can handle those types of jobs with ease.

Is there a limit on the input file size?

There is no limit on input file size but performance may vary with very large input files or very complex input types.

Do you accept live videos as input (i.e. video captured via webcam, live channel streams)? Do you support live encoding?

The Transcode API is a file-based transcoding service so we can accept any file-based input such as mp4 or webm. You can stitch multiple input files together into a sequence but we cannot record a live stream. For live video, you might be interested in the Dolby.io Communications API.

How long does it usually take to transcode a file? What input variables impact the processing time, such as input file size, resolution, bitrate, region, etc.?

Processing times will vary depending on many factors such as input file size, type, and location. Today, all of our processing happens in the western US region and we will be expanding to other regions soon. Generally, for HD and below, the processing is close to real-time or faster. For example, a 5 minute HD video will take around 4-5 minutes to transcode to MP4. For more complex content or high resolution/frame rate, or complex inputs, the processing time can vary. You are only billed for the duration of the output content with the Transcode API, not the processing time.

How will I be notified about jobs that start to process, jobs that complete, warnings, and errors?

We offer several ways to track your jobs with the Dolby.io Media APIs. If you are using multiple APIs, we have an endpoint for returning all API job statuses in a single call. You can also poll each endpoint specifically for the status of a job. Additionally, we offer webhooks so that you can get push notifications when processing has been completed.

Can I stitch clips (a.k.a. two or more input files stitched together to generate a single output file)?

Yes, the Transcode API makes it easy to stitch or concatenate multiple files into a single output or even into a streaming output such as HLS or DASH. In addition, you can also trim out the beginning or end of a video.

Can I improve the video quality with the Dolby.io Transcode API?

Our defaults are optimized for video streaming and web delivery while maintaining the high quality you would expect from Dolby. If you are not satisfied with the defaults, we allow you to adjust the encoding more and bitrate to further customize your output video, see our How-To Guide for an overview on our advanced configuration. Currently, the Transcode API is aimed at reducing video file size and making files broadly compatible with many devices. Video Enhancement such as improving color, removing artifacts, and cleaning up video may come in the future.

Can I use a Content Distribution Network to distribute my transcoded media files?

Yes, all of our files are “streamable.” This means that mp4s and webm outputs are optimized for progressive download, and our HLS and DASH outputs are packaged and fragmented for Adaptive Bitrate delivery. All of our outputs can be delivered over any of your existing infrastructure.

How do I play the files back from Dolby.io?

The Transcode API writes outputs to your own cloud storage. From there you can download the files directly or distribute them via any CDN or webserver of your choice, or even directly from your cloud storage account. All of our output files are “streamable,” meaning that for mp4 files, the “moov” atom is at the front of the file for progressive download and our HLS and Dash outputs are fragmented and assembled in a playlist so that you can put the .m3u8 or .mpd manifest file into any compatible player of your choice.

Can I generate clips (i.e. input file = 5 min, specify the start time and duration so the output file = 1 min)?

Yes, the Transcode API offers the ability to trim the beginning or end off of your media file. In addition, you can stitch or concatenate content. You specify the trim values with our “segment” parameter. See our guides on How-To Trim a Media File and How-To Stitch Media Files for examples.

Can I create custom presets for my transcoded output (i.e. resolution, codec, etc.)?

The Dolby.io Transcode API doesn’t support storing presets, but you can easily use a templating language of your choice to define a consistent output or preset specific to your needs. Refer to How-To Transcode to a Specification for an overview of advance output configuration.

In which region is DolbyIO Transcode API available?

We can accept input files from all over the world in any region. We output to Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, or Google Compute storage in any region. Currently, our processing happens in the Western US and we are expanding to new regions in the future.

Do you support High Dynamic Range video and Dolby Vision?

The Transcode API is designed for the most compatible standard dynamic range video today. If you input an HDR video, we will automatically down-convert it to SDR. We will support HDR video in the future. If you have specific needs, please get in touch!

Can I cancel a job that I submitted?

We allow for job cancellation within 15 seconds of submitting the job, see our How-To guide for canceling a job.

What input formats do you support?

We can accept most input media files.

What video formats can I transcode into?

We support mp4 and webm containers with codec support for the most common web and streaming formats with AVC/h264, HEVC/h265, VP8, and VP9. We support aac, opus, wav, and ogg for audio-specific outputs. We also output popular streaming formats HLS and DASH for adaptive bitrate streaming. We will be adding more formats over time.

What audio formats can I transcode into?

We can support aac in mp4 or as an elementary (non-multiplexed) output, uncompressed PCM in a wav format, mp3, vorbis and opus in webm, and more to come.

Can I transcode a video file into an audio-only file?

Assuming that your input file contains an audio track, yes, you can extract and transcode to an audio-only output. It is also possible to create a video-only version of an input file that contains audio and video. See our How-To guide for examples.

What will the output format contain if the source-file contains multi-channel audio?

By default, the Transcode API will pass through the channel configuration from the input file to the output file. If you specify a higher number of channels than the input file, silent channels will be added. If you specify fewer channels than the input file, the audio will be appropriately downmixed to match, for example a 5.1 surround mix can be downmixed to a stereo or mono output simply by specifying an output channel count of 2 or 1.

What happens when the input media has multiple audio tracks?

At present, the API will use the first audio track from the input file.

Can I stitch clips (a.k.a. two or more input files stitched together to generate a single output file)?

Do you support closed captions?

Not currently.

Can I transcode into HLS output?

Yes, we support HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) streaming outputs with the ability to either automatically determine what the output renditions are or we allow you to manually specify each layer. See our How-To guide for HLS for more information.

Can I transcode into MPEG-DASH streaming?

Yes, we support MPEG-DASH streaming outputs with the ability to either automatically determine what the output renditions are or we allow you to manually specify each layer. See our How-To guide for HLS for more information.

How do I get my files in and out of the API? Can I connect to my own storage?

The Transcode API can connect directly to your AWS S3, Microsoft Azure, or Google Storage account with credentials, can read any publicly available file on the web, pre-signed URLs, or HTTP with basic authentication. This works the same for your output storage. See our media input and output guides for more detail. For testing the Media APIs, we also offer Dolby Temporary Cloud Storage free of charge so that you can upload and download local files without having to connect your own storage account.

It’s not clear from your documentation if you support what I’m hoping to achieve. Who should I contact?

Our support team can help you determine how to get what you need out of any of our APIs.

I need help, how do I get support?

We offer real-human support. Connect with our support team on the support page.

Can I get a free trial?

Yes, accounts start with $15 a month in free credits so that you can experiment with all of our media APIs before buying. If you transition your account to a pay-as-you-go customer, you will receive a promotional $25 per month credit for the promotional period.

What does the billing process look like?

The billing process is simple and transparent. Once you sign up you can get started for free. Once you are ready, move to the pay-as-you-go plan and only pay for your usage. Invoices are sent on a monthly basis. Each API’s pricing is listed on our Pricing page. You may be charged for data egress from your video storage provider but data egress out of Dolby.io is included in the price.

How are output minutes defined and charged?

For the Transcode API, billing is charged per minute of each output file that the API generates. If you concatenate 2 10-minute video files into a single output file, billing is based upon the summed duration of the files (20 output minutes). Pricing is based upon which codec, resolution and frame-rate is used. If you shorten a 10 minute file to a 1 minute output, you are only billed for that output. HLS and DASH packaging and image outputs are not charged additionally but require you to generate audio or video outputs in the same request. See our Pricing page for output pricing details as well as some example usage.

How are fractional minutes charged?

All billing is calculated fractionally. If you output 1.5 minutes of video, you are charged for the type of video you output x the 1.5 minute duration.

Are taxes included in the pricing?

Taxes are assessed according to the billing address on file beginning January 1, 2022. We will not assess any tax to usage prior to that date.

Do you charge for failed API calls?

No, we don’t. If your job fails, you are not charged for any of the processing.

How can I cancel my subscription?

Our billing is no-commitment. Pay only for what you’ve used. Stop using the API to stop getting charged and change your plan in your dashboard.

What is FAQ?

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What is FAQ?

Keep a good thing going

Get the latest news, events, and product updates from the Dolby.io team.

Media APIs

Transcode

Overview

Transcode and assemble

Smart by default

Scale where you need it

Advanced technology

Transparent pricing, no commitments

Complete cloud media platform for developers

Features

Flexible media transcoding

Editing and composition

Output formats

Adaptive bitrate (ABR)

Multi-cloud

Demo

Enhance, personalize, edit and convert videos programmatically in the cloud

Developer Resources

Public docs

Sample projects

Self-service dashboard

Documentation

Developer blog

Build your next project with simple media conversion

FAQs

What is the Dolby.io Transcode API?

Who/which industry vertical can use the Dolby.io Transcode API?

Why should I choose the Dolby.io Transcode API over other cloud encoding services?

How is the Dolby.io Transcode API related to other Dolby.io Media API products?

What future capabilities can I expect from the Dolby.io Transcode API?

Can I use the Dolby.io Transcode API with my other workflow vendors?

Can I use the Dolby.io Transcode API with live videos?

How is the Dolby.io Transcode API different from Dolby Hybrik?

What is the fastest way to get started testing the Dolby.io Transcode API?

It looks like you don’t support a feature that I need, how can I submit a feature request?

What is the maximum number of jobs that can be submitted/processed at once?

What is the maximum number of outputs per job?

Is there a limit on the input file size?

Do you accept live videos as input (i.e. video captured via webcam, live channel streams)? Do you support live encoding?

How long does it usually take to transcode a file? What input variables impact the processing time, such as input file size, resolution, bitrate, region, etc.?

How will I be notified about jobs that start to process, jobs that complete, warnings, and errors?

Can I stitch clips (a.k.a. two or more input files stitched together to generate a single output file)?

Can I improve the video quality with the Dolby.io Transcode API?

Can I use a Content Distribution Network to distribute my transcoded media files?

How do I play the files back from Dolby.io?

Can I generate clips (i.e. input file = 5 min, specify the start time and duration so the output file = 1 min)?

Can I create custom presets for my transcoded output (i.e. resolution, codec, etc.)?

In which region is DolbyIO Transcode API available?

Do you support High Dynamic Range video and Dolby Vision?

Can I cancel a job that I submitted?

What input formats do you support?

What video formats can I transcode into?

What audio formats can I transcode into?

Can I transcode a video file into an audio-only file?

What will the output format contain if the source-file contains multi-channel audio?

What happens when the input media has multiple audio tracks?

Can I stitch clips (a.k.a. two or more input files stitched together to generate a single output file)?

Do you support closed captions?

Can I transcode into HLS output?

Can I transcode into MPEG-DASH streaming?

How do I get my files in and out of the API? Can I connect to my own storage?

It’s not clear from your documentation if you support what I’m hoping to achieve. Who should I contact?

I need help, how do I get support?

Can I get a free trial?

What does the billing process look like?

How are output minutes defined and charged?

How are fractional minutes charged?

Are taxes included in the pricing?

Do you charge for failed API calls?

How can I cancel my subscription?

What is FAQ?

What is FAQ?

Keep a good thing going

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