What are the supported transcoding formats for the Kaltura SaaS edition?

Commonly used video formats and codecs 

The following lists commonly used media formats and codecs that were tested and optimized for transcoding and delivery by Kaltura.

Additional codecs and formats are supported by the underlying encoder engines and can be ingested and transcoded by Kaltura. For further details and discovery regarding a specific codec or format that is not listed, please contact us.

Ingest (Input) file formats and codecs

The following video formats and codecs have been tested and optimized for optimal transcoding input:

Media file formats

Mpeg-4 and QuickTime Formats (MP4, MOV, QT, and M4V), Flash Video (FLV and F4V), Microsoft Windows Formats (AVI, ASF, WMV and WMA), MPEG-1/2 (MPG, M1V, M2V, MP3), WAV, Matroska (MKV), OGG OGM & OGV, WEBM, 3GP, RM, Webex (ARF), MXF

Video codecs

DivX (Div3/4/5, DX50), DV, H.263, H.264 and AVC,H.265, MPEG-4 Visual, MPEG-1/2, MJPG, MP42/3, IV40/50 (Indeo codecs), RV30/40, RMVB, FLV1/4, VP3/5/6/7/8/9, Sorenson (SVQ1/3), Xvid, Theora, WMV1/2/3, VC1, ProRes 422, ICOD, DVCPRO, PXLT, TCSS/TCS2, GoToMeeting Codec (G2M3/4)

The Maximum Video Frame Size is 5000 x 5000.

Audio codecs

MP3, MP1/2, AC3, EAC3, AAC, Vorbis, AMR, PCM, WMA7/8/9, WMSpeech, FLAC, QDM2, RA, Nellymoser, Cook, GSM, SPEEX

Image formats

GIF, JPEG, PNG, BMP, and TIF.

Document formats

Optional if Document module is enabled. 

Target (output) video and audio codecs 

The following video formats and codecs have been tested and optimized as optimal transcoding output and delivery:

Media file formats

MP4, FLV, AVI, 3GP, OGG, MKV, WMV, WMA, Microsoft Silverlight Smooth Streaming, Apple HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), WEBM, MPEG, MPEG TS, WAV, M4V, MXF

Video codecs

 H.264, H.263, MPEG-4 Visual, VP8, VP6, FLV1, Theora, WMV1/2, VC1, MPEG-2, APCN/S/O/H, DNXHD, DV

Audio codecs

 MP3, AAC LC, AAC HE, Vorbis, WMA/Pro, AMR NB, MPEG2, AC3, PCM

Delivery-specific formats

Kaltura supports various streaming standards and protocols, see the Video Delivery Settings article for more information about the types of video delivery formats support and supported delivery settings in Kaltura.

Supported file extensions

The following file extension are supported:

flv, asf, qt ,mov, mpg ,mpeg,  avi, wmv, mp4, m4v, 3gp, vob, f4v, mkv, mxf, mts, ts, rm, arf, webm, lxf, m4v

Intermediate-source processing

With some proprietary formats and codecs, a dedicated hardware, operating system or software may be required to handle the transcoding of such files. In such cases Kaltura will leverage the dedicated technology to convert the ingested proprietary source into an intermediate-source (file of non-proprietary format/codec, usually MP4/H.264 or WMV) and then continue the processing as usual.

  • Webex/ARF - Cisco's WebEx Network Recording Tool will be used to covert the proprietary WebEx format before continuing with the media transcoding process.
  • GoToMeeting Codec - Windows Expression Encoder 4 will be used to covert the proprietary GoToMeeting codec before continuing with the media transcoding process.
  • QuickTime Video (QT) - MAC machines will be used to covert the proprietary QT format before continuing with the media transcoding process.

In addition to processing 'special source formats', an intermediate-source is also used to handle known video issues, such as handling artifacts in Digital Video sources, adding silent audio tracks for assets that will be ciphered by Widevine DRM, and other cases.

If the configuration "Enable file type restriction" is ON (and it's usually on by default), not all file types listed above will be uploaded and will return an error. This configuration is not per user, but per account. The restriction, however, could be disabled by your Kaltura Customer Care Team.

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