Cloud services that convert audio and video files from one format, resolution, or bitrate to another, enabling content to play smoothly on any device or network speed. Like a universal translator for video files, transcoding services take a single high-quality source video and create optimized versions for smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and web browsers — each with the right codec, resolution, and bitrate. AWS provides Elastic Transcoder and MediaConvert, Azure offers Media Services Encoder, GCP has Transcoder API, and OCI provides media processing through its media services.
A streaming platform uploads a 4K movie master file and the transcoding service automatically creates 15 different versions: 4K HDR for smart TVs, 1080p for laptops, 720p for tablets, 480p for mobile on slow connections, plus audio-only versions and thumbnail sprites — all in under an hour using hundreds of cloud servers working in parallel.