Supported Input Codecs & Formats

MainConcept 2GO OTT File Transcoder HLS supports the following input codecs and formats:

• Video: MPEG-1/2, MPEG-4 Part 2, H.263, VC-1, HEVC/H.265, AVC/H.264, DV / DVCPRO, JPEG 2000, Apple ProRes, DNxHD, DNxHR
• Audio: PCM / LPCM, MPEG Layer 1/2/3, AAC / HE-AAC, WMA, AMR, RAW / WAV, DV, AC-3, E-AC-3
• Container: Elementary Streams, MPEG-2 Program Stream / Transport Stream, MP4, 3GP, F4V, ASF, DV, DIF, MJ2, MXF, RAW, MOV

Supported Output Formats

MainConcept 2GO OTT File Transcoder HLS has support for the following output formats.

• HLS AVC (AVC/H.264 (8-bit) video and AAC LC audio) including fMP4 and MPEG-2 TS packaging and playlist / master playlist file generation
• HLS HEVC (HEVC/H.265 (8-bit video and AAC LC audio) including fMP4 packaging and MPD / manifest file generation
• Hybrid playlist generation with AVC in TS and HEVC in fMP4

Starting MainConcept 2GO

Make sure you have successfully installed your MainConcept 2GO product on the computer by following the Installation instructions.

The “run” script inside the scripts folder makes starting MainConcept 2GO easy and lets you understand how 2GO docker containers are actually run. If you plan to run MainConcept 2GO through container management tools like Docker Compose, Kubernetes or Docker Swarm it is recommended that you understand the parameters required for 2GO containers by reading the “run” script.

MainConcept 2GO products require passing configuration parameters to the container at startup. These can include input and output filenames, serial keys, shared volume folders or external URLs. These parameters can be specified in a JSON file, a properties file or via the command line.

Using job description file
MainConcept 2GO v2.0 introduces a REST API and provides users an interface that is more suitable for integration with their existing environment or tools. This API covers functionality to create jobs and query their status using standard REST API calls over HTTP. A job description file is posted to the endpoint which must be in JSON format. This JSON file must contain all the necessary parameters required for the submitted jobs.

To edit the parameters of the JSON file, use a text editor. Here are some examples:

{
     INPUT": "ftp://10.144.41.202:2121/test.mp4",
     "OUTPUT": "ftp://10.144.41.202:2121/test/123AB0CD",
     "PRESETNAME": "Apple Hybrid HLS AVC TS HEVC fMP4 Audio",
     "VIDEO_LEVELS": "v3-avc,v5-avc,v7-avc,v4-hevc,v8-hevc",
     "AUDIO_LEVELS": "a1",
     “KEEP_CONTENT": “TRUE”,
     "VERBOSITY": "FULL"
 }

 {
     "INPUT": "/volume/test.mp4",
     "OUTPUT": "/volume_out/123AB0CD",
     "PRESET": "Apple Hybrid HLS AVC TS HEVC fMP4 Audio.mps",
     "VIDEO_LEVELS": "v3-avc,v5-avc,v7-avc,v4-hevc,v8-hevc",
     "AUDIO_LEVELS": "a1",
     “KEEP_CONTENT": “TRUE”,
     "VERBOSITY": "FULL"
 } 

Apple Hybrid HLS AVC TS HEVC fMP4 audio.mps:

* For HLS AVC in TS as well as for HLS HEVC in fMP4, video and audio are muxed into separate containers.

Apple HLS AVC TS 16x9.mps:

** For HLS AVC in TS, video and audio are muxed into a single container.

Apple HLS HEVC fMP4 16x9.mps:

*** For HLS HEVC in fMP4, video and audio are muxed into separate containers.

Using properties file
The easiest way to start MainConcept 2GO is by editing the “properties.txt” file to your needs and then executing the “run” script with this file.

~/MainConcept/2GO/mc_2go_ott_file_transcoder_hls_demo# ./scripts/run.sh scripts/properties.txt

The MainConcept 2GO OTT File Transcoder HLS supports the following configuration options:

To edit the parameters, use a text editor:

1  ACCEPT_EULA=Y
2  SHARED_PATH_IN=~/MainConcept/2GO/mc_2go_ott_file_transcoder_hls_demo/volume
3  SHARED_PATH_OUT=~/MainConcept/2GO/mc_2go_ott_file_transcoder_hls_demo/volume
4  JOBS=~/path/to/json_file
5  PORT=8082
6  AUTOSTART=TRUE
7  CUSTOMER_ID=xxx
8  VERBOSITY=DEFAULT

Using command line options
Instead of editing a properties file, all configuration parameters can also be specified on the command line directly.

~/MainConcept/2GO/mc_2go_ott_file_transcoder_hls_demo/docker# ./scripts/run.sh \
>    ACCEPT_EULA=Y \
>    SHARED_PATH_IN=~/MainConcept/2GO/mc_2go_ott_file_transcoder_hls_demo/volume \
>    SHARED_PATH_OUT=~/MainConcept/2GO/mc_2go_ott_file_transcoder_hls_demo/volume \
>    JOBS=~/path/to/json_file \
>    PORT=8082 \
>    AUTOSTART=TRUE \
>    CUSTOMER_ID=xxx \
>    VERBOSITY=DEFAULT██

Using docker-compose
Docker Compose lets you start multiple replicas of the same image. It also significantly simplifies starting MainConcept 2GO products.

Docker Compose is a separate tool that must be installed in addition to Docker. Please refer to the documentation about how to install and setup Compose: docs.docker.com/compose/

To run MainConcept 2GO with Docker Compose you create a compose file in YAML. All parameters to run the 2GO product via Docker Compose are specified inside this YAML file. To simplify deployment of MainConcept 2GO containers, setting environment variables for the 2GO configuration and then using them in the YAML file is recommended.

This is a basic “docker-compose.yml” file showing how to configure MainConcept 2GO.

1  version: '2.2'
2  services:
3    2go:
4      image: 2go_ott_file_transcoder_hls_demo
5      network_mode: host
6      volumes:
7      -${2GO_VOLUME}:/volume
8      environment:
9      -2GO_PARAMS=${2GO_PARAMS}

It uses two environment variables 2GO_VOLUME and 2GO_PARAMS. These must be set before starting docker-compose.

~# export 2GO_VOLUME=~/MainConcept/2GO/mc_2go_ott_file_transcoder_hls_demo/volume/
~# export 2GO_PARAMS="INPUT=avchd_camera_testfile.mts OUTPUT=out_file PRESET=presets/Apple HLS HEVC fMP4 16x9.mps SERIAL=serials.txt"

After that starting 2GO using Docker Compose is as easy as:

~/MainConcept/2GO/mc_2go_ott_file_transcoder_hls_demo# docker-compose up -d
Starting mc2goottfiletranscoder_hlsdemo_2go_1 ...
Starting mc2goottfiletranscoderhlsdemo_2go_1 ... done
~/MainConcept/2GO/mc_2go_ott_file_transcoder_hls_demo#

MainConcept 2GO containers should be stopped using the convenience “stop” script provided in the scripts folder.

To execute the script on an active container you first need to know the container ID. This can be found from the first column of the docker ps command:

~/MainConcept/2GO/mc_2go_ott_file_transcoder_hls_demo# docker ps
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                              COMMAND                    CREATED
bc45686deb0e   mc_2go_ott_file_transcoder_hls_demo   "/opt/bin/reporting_..."   4seconds ago

Then use the convenience “stop” script in the scripts folder to abort the 2GO execution:

~/MainConcept/2GO/mc_2go_ott_file_transcoder_hls_demo# ./scripts/stop.sh bc45686deb0e
Stopping the OTT File Transcoder HLS...
OTT File Transcoder HLS stopped.
~/MainConcept/2GO/mc_2go_ott_file_transcoder_hls_demo# █

If you are using the REST API, you also have the opportunity to shut down the container by using DELETE /service. If a job is currently active, the container is not shut down and this function is ignored. In this case you need to abort the job first using POST /jobs/{jobID}/abort