Media processing and the license key

Viewing your license key

To see which USP components are enabled by your license key file, type the following command:

mp4split --license_key=<path to license key file> --show_license

Media processing details

The output of the command above lists many details, such as the product name, the license's start and expiry dates, etc. For media processing, the interesting parts are in the Encoding: and Decoding: sections under Supported Features:. For example:

Supported features:
<...other features omitted...>
Encoding: AVC
  AVC Encoder Count: 128
Decoding: AVC

This shows that AVC encoding and decoding are enabled, and that the number of licensed AVC encoders is 128.

Changed in version 1.15.0: for patent licensing reasons, the AVC Encoder Count field was added; for older license key files, it will be shown as 0.

The license key check

For media processing operations, the platform checks your license key as follows:

  • If an AVC decoder is used, the platform requires that the license key enables AVC decoding.

  • If an AVC encoder is used, the platform requires that the license key enables AVC encoding.

  • Finally, the number of CPU cores (as reported by the operating system) is compared to the AVC Encoder Count field in your license key. If the number of CPU cores is higher than the AVC Encoder Count field, a warning is issued, and the number of concurrent encoding sessions is limited to 1: additional requests will be delayed, waiting for the current request to complete. [1]

Note

These rules attempt to strike a balance between user convenience, patent license under-reporting avoidance, and implementation robustness.

Important

When using local transcoding, the above flags must be present in your client license, e.g. Unified Packager (mp4split), unified_capture or unified_remix. When using remote transcoding instead, they must be present in your Media Processing Unit's license file. Your client's license does not require any specific, transcoding-related flags.

Footnotes