Understanding video fundamentals

Even though KVS can handle any form of time-encoded data, its primary use case is for video and audio media. To better understand how to use KVS, we need to cover the basics of video. The two main attributes of a video are its resolution and its bitrate.

The resolution is the pixel size of the video, normally presented as horizontal x vertical – for example, 1,920 x 1,080 – and its bitrate is the amount of data that's encoded in the video per second, measured in Mbps. In general, the higher the bitrate and the higher the resolution, the higher the quality of the video.

The following diagram shows a high-level overview of how video is captured, compressed using a codec, put into a container, decompressed, and then played:

Figure 7.1 – Overview of codecs and containers

Audio and video technology is incredibly complicated, so we'll generally stay at a high level and focus on the aspects...