Video optimization

How Inverity optimizes video.

Inverity optimizes video the same way it optimizes images — content first. It detects the kind of video and picks the encoder and settings that compress that content best at the quality you set.

Content types

Talking head — interviews, webinars, presenter footage. A static background with a small moving region compresses very efficiently.

Screen recording — product demos, tutorials, screencasts. Long static stretches punctuated by movement, and text that has to stay legible. Text legibility is the constraint that matters here; an encoder that treats a screencast like camera footage turns UI labels to mush.

Motion graphic — animations, explainers, title sequences. Synthetic colour and sharp edges, often with hard cuts.

Archive master — high-resolution source footage. Fidelity is the priority, because this file is an input to future work rather than a delivery format.

Each type has its own best-fit encoder, so a talking-head clip and a 4K archive master are handled differently even if they're in the same folder.

Format compatibility

If your source is in a format that doesn't play reliably in browsers — for example MOV, WebM, or MKV — Inverity converts it to MP4.

In that case Inverity keeps the converted file even if it isn't smaller, because broad playback compatibility is the benefit. This is the one situation where you'll see a written-back file that didn't shrink, and it's deliberate: a video that plays everywhere at the same size beats a smaller video that fails on some devices.

Processing time

Video takes substantially longer than images, and the difference is not subtle — a 4K master can take orders of magnitude longer than a web image. Processing runs in the background, so you can keep working; results appear in the dashboard as each clip finishes.

If a large clip seems stuck, check the usual causes before contacting support:

• Your monthly volume may have run out mid-job. Processing pauses until the period resets or you upgrade. See Volume and usage.
• There may be an active incident. See Status and incidents.

See Processing issues.

Volume and video

Video is metered exactly like images — by the source size in GB. Because video files are large, a modest number of clips can consume a meaningful share of your monthly volume. A single 4K master can be several gigabytes on its own.

Audio

Inverity optimizes the video file as a whole. It does not separate, replace, or re-language your audio tracks, and it isn't a transcoding service for producing delivery ladders — if you need multiple renditions and adaptive bitrate streaming, that remains a job for your video platform.

What to check on your first clips

1. Text legibility on any screen recording, at the size viewers actually watch it.
2. Motion smoothness on anything with fast camera movement or hard cuts.
3. Playback in the browsers and devices your audience uses, especially for files that were converted to MP4.