June 22nd, 2024

'Meridian': Why Netflix Is Helping Competitors with Content and Code (2016)

Netflix created "Meridian," a 12-minute film for testing video codecs on 4K TVs. Shared under a Creative Commons license, it aids industry collaboration and promotes open source practices in Hollywood.

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'Meridian': Why Netflix Is Helping Competitors with Content and Code (2016)

"Meridian" is a 12-minute Netflix original program created not for its subscribers but for algorithms and programmers. The film serves as test footage to evaluate video codecs and streaming performance on 4K TVs. Netflix is sharing "Meridian" under a Creative Commons license to aid hardware manufacturers, codec developers, and even competitors like Amazon and Hulu. Additionally, Netflix is open-sourcing tools to address challenges in managing multiple versions of movies for different markets, languages, and content requirements. The company aims to streamline this process using the Interoperable Master Format (IMF) standard, enhancing collaboration in the industry. By releasing tools and projects like VMAF and "Meridian," Netflix is promoting open source practices in Hollywood, similar to its initiatives in cloud computing. Despite being algorithm-focused, "Meridian" is available for Netflix subscribers to enjoy, showcasing advanced visuals and serving as a unique addition to the platform's content catalog.

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Link Icon 4 comments
By @peutetre - 4 months
Netflix's work on SVT-AV1 has also been important. It has delivered a fast and efficient encoder for AV1:

https://netflixtechblog.com/introducing-svt-av1-a-scalable-o...

https://netflixtechblog.com/svt-av1-an-open-source-av1-encod...

SVT-AV1 has since been adopted by AOMedia:

https://gitlab.com/AOMediaCodec/SVT-AV1

With SVT-AV1 you can achieve encode times similar to x264, x265, and libvpx by choosing the right preset and still achieve better image quality. See the "computation trade-offs" graph in this blog post:

https://engineering.fb.com/2023/02/21/video-engineering/av1-...

SVT-AV1 2.1 is the latest release with still more performance improvements:

https://www.phoronix.com/news/SVT-AV1-2.1-Released

By @wslh - 4 months
I don't know but the streaming market is growing [1], and more since 2016. A growing market means more opportunities and the streaming market doesn't seem like a monopoly so all competing players are helping in the grow and several will benefit. More challenges and more opportunities. Also, standards are great for that industry.

[1] https://www.statista.com/outlook/dmo/digital-media/video-on-...

By @chrisdroukas - 4 months
[2016]
By @adolph - 4 months
Does Lena have a cameo in it?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenna