Systems, methods, and media for transcoding video data

1. A method for transcoding a source video file into a set of multiple alternate video streams, the method comprising:

generating, at a computer system configured as a media metadata generation device, media metadata related to the source video file prior to decoding, during a transcoding of, at least a portion of the source video file, where the media metadata comprises scene complexity information;

providing information based on the media metadata from the computer system to a plurality of transcoding devices; and

performing the following at each of the plurality of transcoding devices in parallel:

receiving the at least a portion of the source video file, including a first plurality of encoded images encoded according to a source format, from a media content source;

decoding the at least a portion of the source video file based on the source format to generate a decoded portion of video including a plurality of decoded images;

receiving the information based on the media metadata from the computer system; and

encoding the plurality of decoded images of the decoded portion of video into an alternate video stream including a second plurality of encoded images based on a target format and the information based on the media metadata, the alternate video stream being one of the set of multiple alternate video streams.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein a group of the plurality of transcoding devices perform processes in parallel for the same alternate video stream from the set of multiple alternate video streams.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein a group of the plurality of transcoding devices perform processes in parallel for different alternate video streams in the set of multiple alternate video streams.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the media metadata further comprises scene change information indicating the start and end of a scene.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the encoding of the plurality of decoded images of the decoded portion of video into an alternate video stream includes performing at least the following operations for images in the plurality of decoded images:

generating a prediction image for each of a plurality of coding units of an image in the plurality of decoded images using the scene change information and the scene complexity information within the information based on the media metadata according to the target format;

performing transforms on residual images of the plurality of coding units to generate sets of transform coefficients based on the target format; and

performing entropy encoding on the sets of transform coefficients to generate images for the second plurality of encoded images.

6. The method of claim 1 , by further performing the following at each of the plurality of transcoding devices in parallel:

performing quantization on the sets of transform coefficients for an image in the plurality of decoded images based at least in part on the scene complexity information within the information based on the media metadata; and

quantizing the generated set of transform coefficients according to the target format.

7. The method of claim 4 , by further performing the following at each of the plurality of transcoding devices in parallel:

determining a number of bits to encode a group of pictures (GOP) based at least in part on a number of frames between the start and end of a scene as indicated by the information based on the media metadata.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the source format and the target format have different resolutions.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the source format and the target format correspond to different video encoding standards.

10. The method of claim 1 , by further performing the following at each of the plurality of transcoding devices in parallel:

dividing an image in the plurality of decoded images into a plurality of coding units based on the target format.

11. A system for transcoding video data, the system comprising:

a computer system configured as a media metadata generation device, wherein the computer system is configured to:

generate media metadata related to the source video file prior to decoding, during a transcoding of, at least a portion of the source video file, where the media metadata comprises scene complexity information; and

provide information based on the media metadata to a plurality of transcoding devices; and

the plurality of transcoding devices, configured to perform the following at each of the plurality of transcoding devices in parallel:

receive the at least a portion of the source video file, including a first plurality of encoded images encoded according to a source format, from a media content source;

decode the at least a portion of the source video file based on the source format to generate a decoded portion of video including a plurality of decoded images;

receive the information based on the media metadata from the computer system; and

encode the plurality of decoded images of the decoded portion of video into an alternate video stream including a second plurality of encoded images based on a target format and the information based on the media metadata, the alternate video stream being one of the set of multiple alternate video streams.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein a group of the plurality of transcoding devices perform processes in parallel for the same alternate video stream from the set of multiple alternate video streams.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein a group of the plurality of transcoding devices perform processes in parallel for different alternate video streams in the set of multiple alternate video streams.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the media metadata further comprises scene change information indicating the start and end of a scene.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein encoding the plurality of decoded images of the decoded portion of video into an alternate video stream is performed using at least the following operations for images in the plurality of decoded images:

generating a prediction image for each of a plurality of coding units of an image in the plurality of decoded images using the scene change information and the scene complexity information within the information based on the media metadata according to the target format;

performing transforms on residual images of the plurality of coding units to generate sets of transform coefficients based on the target format; and

performing entropy encoding on the sets of transform coefficients to generate images for the second plurality of encoded images.

16. The system of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of transcoding devices are configured to further perform the following at each of the plurality of transcoding devices in parallel:

performing quantization on the sets of transform coefficients for an image in the plurality of decoded images based at least in part on the scene complexity information within the information based on the media metadata; and

quantizing the generated set of transform coefficients according to the target format.

17. The system of claim 14 , wherein the plurality of transcoding devices are configured to further perform the following at each of the plurality of transcoding devices in parallel:

determining a number of bits to encode a group of pictures (GOP) based at least in part on a number of frames between the start and end of a scene as indicated by the information based on the media metadata.

18. The system of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of transcoding devices are configured to further perform the following at each of the plurality of transcoding devices in parallel:

dividing an image in the plurality of decoded images into a plurality of coding units based on the target format.

19. The system of claim 11 , wherein the source format and the target format have different resolutions.

20. The system of claim 11 , wherein the source format and the target format correspond to different video encoding standards.

21. A method for transcoding a source video file into a set of multiple alternate video streams, the method comprising:

generating, at a computer system configured as a media metadata generation device, media metadata related to the source video file prior to decoding, during a transcoding of, at least a portion of the source video file, where the media metadata comprises scene change information indicating the start and end of a scene, and scene complexity information;

providing information based on the media metadata from the computer system to a plurality of transcoding devices; and

performing the following at each of the plurality of transcoding devices in parallel:

receiving the at least a portion of the source video file, including a first plurality of encoded images encoded according to a source format, from a media content source;

decoding the at least a portion of the source video file based on the source format to generate a decoded portion of video including a plurality of decoded images;

receiving the information based on the media metadata from the computer system;

dividing an image in the plurality of decoded images into a plurality of coding units based on a target format, wherein the source format and the target format have different resolutions;

determining a number of bits to encode a group of pictures (GOP) based at least in part on a number of frames between the start and end of a scene as indicated by the information based on the media metadata; and

encoding the plurality of decoded images of the decoded portion of video into an alternate video stream including a second plurality of encoded images based on the target format and the information based on the media metadata, the alternate video stream being one of the set of multiple alternate video streams.