[HN Gopher] SVT Encore - Abstract the Transcoding Power of FFmpeg
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       SVT Encore - Abstract the Transcoding Power of FFmpeg
        
       Author : unicornporn
       Score  : 46 points
       Date   : 2021-05-08 07:58 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | kalleboo wrote:
       | Since it's probably not clear to most HN readers, this is
       | maintained by the Swedish public broadcaster (SVT: Sveriges
       | Television) which provides a video streaming service (similar to
       | BBC iPlayer) at https://www.svtplay.se
       | 
       | The documentation has a story about how the project came about
       | (as a replacement for the proprietary system they were using)
       | https://svt.github.io/encore-doc/#projecthistory
        
         | ZeroGravitas wrote:
         | I was assuming it was part of Intel's SVT encoder project
         | 
         | https://01.org/svt
        
         | guerrilla wrote:
         | Speaking of that, today is the last day to see the 24/7 "slow
         | TV" streaming of the moose crossing the stream [1].
         | 
         | https://www.svtplay.se/video/30837126/den-stora-algvandringe...
        
           | cpach wrote:
           | Not sure if it's georestricted or not, but if it is that's
           | probably easily solvable with Mullvad VPN or a similar
           | service.
        
             | novium wrote:
             | It's also on twitch, shouldn't be geoblocked there
             | https://www.twitch.tv/svt_slow
        
             | guerrilla wrote:
             | It's not for the US, Denmark and Swtizerland at least.
        
               | cpach wrote:
               | Great. I guess they mostly do that for stuff they don't
               | own themselves.
        
               | guerrilla wrote:
               | I think so actually, stuff they're getting a license from
               | someone else for.
        
               | donpark wrote:
               | Verified access from US although I think they ran out of
               | moose.
        
               | guerrilla wrote:
               | Most of the time, you only see them (or other animals)
               | rarely, but sometimes there are a bunch non-stop. That's
               | how it is.
        
       | cpach wrote:
       | Literally my tax money at work :-p
        
         | 3np wrote:
         | I guess you mean your radio license money? SVT is not funded by
         | taxes.
        
           | sagolikasoppor wrote:
           | It for sure is, you can see it on your tax declaration.
        
           | cpach wrote:
           | It used to be funded by a license but the parliament had a
           | vote in 2018 which changed that, so it's now funded by taxes.
        
           | capableweb wrote:
           | A quick search would have led you to the Wikipedia page,
           | where the first paragraph is the following
           | 
           | > [SVT] is the Swedish national public television
           | broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal
           | income set by the Riksdag (national parliament)
           | https://www.regeringen.se/regeringens-politik/medier/ny-
           | avgi...
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sveriges_Television
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | alkonaut wrote:
         | *license. Not tax. A distinction that is subtle but still
         | important.
        
           | sagolikasoppor wrote:
           | It used to be a license but then they switched to taking the
           | money directly from every tax paying adult, thus increasing
           | their budget with a couple of billion SEK.
        
             | georgiecasey wrote:
             | Was this because license revenue dropped? They want to do
             | the same in Ireland
        
               | jontro wrote:
               | In the long run it would've. It was mandatory to pay if
               | you owned a TV. They tried to collect it for people
               | having laptops / mobile phones but it was ruled illegal
               | in the courts.
               | 
               | Instead the government replaced it with a new tax which
               | seems more fair.
        
               | sagolikasoppor wrote:
               | I would say so, yes. As another commentator said they
               | tried to get more people to pay but failed and then
               | instead used corrupt politicians to do their bidding.
               | 
               | I didn't use to pay, now I have no choice.
        
             | alkonaut wrote:
             | It's _still_ a license or "fee", not a tax. What changed is
             | who they charge it _from_ and how it's collected (now
             | through the same method as taxes).
             | 
             | The license being charged from every taxpayer and collected
             | using tax collection mechanisms _doesn't make it a tax_.
             | 
             | The difference is that a tax would be collected into the
             | budget and SVT would be funded through the budget.
             | 
             | A license on the other hand is paid directly to the public
             | service companies which (in theory) gives some amount of
             | political independence.
             | 
             | So: license, not tax.
             | 
             | It might look to some like a useless distinction "how is
             | money paid on my tax bill not a tax!?", but there is an
             | important difference.
        
               | svrtknst wrote:
               | But its funded by the tax, ergo it literally is their tax
               | money at work here.
        
               | alkonaut wrote:
               | But I just explained how the fee being on the tax bill
               | does _not_ make it a tax, since the definition would be
               | "part of the tax budget" not "money collected the same
               | way as taxes".
               | 
               | Which part of what I'm saying are you disagreeing with,
               | and why?
        
               | cpach wrote:
               | The distinction matters in some aspects - e.g. other
               | government agencies can most probably not take the money
               | collected for SVT/SR/UR and use it for other means.
               | 
               | However, a compulsory fee that is forced upon every adult
               | that has an income, even if that person doesn't own a TV
               | and never utilize the services of SVT/SR/UR, then add to
               | this that the fee is collected by the Swedish Tax Agency
               | - to me that surely meets the definition of a tax.
        
               | filleokus wrote:
               | I reject the universality of your definition. How the
               | government spend the collected revenue can't (and isn't)
               | the singular requirement on deciding wether something is
               | a tax or a fee in many circumstances.
               | 
               | For example OECD has definitions they use when comparing
               | tax revenue between countries, loosely explained here
               | [0]. OECD count the public service fee as a fee, but I'm
               | guessing that other things that your definition might
               | categorise as fees are counted as taxes (e.g parts of the
               | compulsory contribution to socialised welfare systems
               | that the employer pays).
               | 
               | To further complicate things, the Swedish government via
               | the ESV seem to categorise the public service fee as a
               | tax [1]. EDIT: This probably describe the reasoning [2]
               | 
               | (But I don't think anyone would argue that e.g the church
               | fee is a tax, since it's voluntary and the government
               | have no ability to spend it at all, even though it's
               | collected via the taxing system).
               | 
               | [0]: https://www.oecd.org/tax/tax-policy/oecd-
               | classification-taxe... (p. 320) [1]: https://www.esv.se/c
               | ontentassets/9d641ba02ce246189306a1c50a2... (p. 91). [2]:
               | https://scb.se/contentassets/237f5d71840c4b6b84b147514dba
               | 4d3...
        
       | SahAssar wrote:
       | Seems like it is essentially a job queue for video transcoding?
        
         | jack_riminton wrote:
         | Yeah some examples of what you can do with it would help
        
         | tgv wrote:
         | That's what it looks like. Scalable, though. Might be good for
         | burst-like processing.
        
       | maxekman wrote:
       | As a Swede I was not expecting the (for us familiar) SVT
       | abbreviation to show up here. I definitely expected that it was
       | some other org with the same name! Nice surprise.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-05-09 23:02 UTC)