Dalet Flex Core: Creating Validation and Transcode Profiles for Assets

A profile is a "template" used to store configuration details. There are two profile types available in Dalet Flex, discussed below.

Validation Profiles

Used for validating assets against desired file structural metadata values. A validation profile is referenced from within some validation actions as well as by inboxes to validate incoming media files. During a validation operation, Dalet Flex compares a validation profile with the technical metadata values (bitrate, framerate, codec, etc) extracted from an asset, to identify whether the validation profile rules are met.

There are two types of Validation Profiles:

• Media Validate: Used to validate media asset types.
• Image Validate: Used to validate image asset types.

Complex Types and Pattern Matching

As well as scripting, Dalet Flex's validation profiles support complex types. This means that instead of entering values into number fields, you can also enter operators to make your matching more powerful. You can also use scripting in string and text
fields.

The operators available are as follows:

Transcode Profiles

Used for defining a transcode profile to be used when transcoding an asset from one file format to another. A transcode profile is referenced from within some transcode actions, to specify the type of transcode process that must occur when the transcode job is delegated to a transcode resource.

Media Transcode Profile

Properties

Field	Value	Explanation
Icon		Plugin icon
Supports Scripting		Whether configuration supports scripting
Scripting Context	asset, job	What Dalet Flex objects can be referenced from within the scripting context

Configuration

Field	Field Type	Mandatory	Multiplicity	Description
Transcode Engine	transcode-engine		0.1	The specific transcode engine required for this profile
Transcoder Profile Name	string		0..1	Transcoder specific preset/profile name
Transcode Profile Template	file		0..1	Transcode profile is based on an uploaded template
Configured Profile	complex		0..1	Transcode profile is based on configuration
Sources	complex		1..*	Information about the source assets
Source Asset Context	string			Asset content hierarchy reference to the source asset
In	string
Out	string
Source Transformations	complex
Deinterlace	complex		0..1	Deinterlace an interlaced source
Deinterlace Method	transcode-deinterlace-method
Threshold	string
Cropping	complex		0..1	Crop a source video
Top (px)	integer
Bottom (px)	integer
Left (px)	integer
Right (px)	integer
Frame Rate Conversion	complex		0..1	Convert a variable to fixed framerate
Conversion Frame Rate (fps)	transcode-frame-rate
Pixel Aspect Ratio Conversion	complex		0..1	Correct a video's reported aspect ratio
Pixel Aspect Ratio Conversion(e.g. 4:3)	string
Product	complex			Information about the product
Format	transcode-format
Format Variant	transcode-format-variant
Output	complex			Information about the output
File Options	complex		0..1	File output options
File Option	complex		0..*	File output option
File Option Name	string
File Option Value	string
Video Streams	complex		0..1	Information about the video
Video Stream	complex		0..1	General information about stream
Video Codec	transcode-video-codec
Video Bit Rate	string
Video Frame Rate (fps)	double
Video Width (px)	integer
Video Width (px)	integer
Pixel Aspect Ratio (e.g. 4:3)	string
Interlace Format	transcode-interlace-format
Video Options	complex		0..1	Video codec options
Video Option	complex		0..*	Video codec option
Video Option Name	string
Video Option Value	string
Video Transformations	complex
Video Fade	complex		0..1
Video Fade-In (sec)	string
Video Fade-Out (sec)	string
Overlays	complex
Graphic Overlay	complex		0..*
Image	Image			Overlay image for transcode.
Start Time Code	string
End Time Code	string
Fade-In Duration (sec)	integer
Fade-Out Duration (sec)	integer
X Position (pixels)	integer			Horizontal offset, in pixels. "0" denotes the far left and increasing values will offset the image to the right
Y Position (pixels)	integer			Vertical offset, in pixels. "0" denotes the top of the image and increasing values will offset the image towards the bottom
X Scale	double			Horizontal scale factor. E.g. 1.0 is actual size, 0.5 is half size, and 2.0 is double original size
Y Scale	double			Vertical scale factor. E.g. 1.0 is actual size, 0.5 is half size, and 2.0 is double original size
Transparency (0.0-1.0)	double			0.0 (fully opaque) and 1.0 (fully transparent)
Text Overlay	complex		0..*
Text	string
Start Time Code	string
End Time Code	string
Fade-In Duration (sec)	integer
Fade-Out Duration (sec)	integer
X Position (0.0-1.0)	double			0.0 (left of the screen) and 1.0 (right of the screen)
Y Position (0.0-1.0)	double			0.0 (top of the screen) and 1.0 (bottom of the screen)
Horizontal Alignments	complex		1
Horizontal Alignment	single-option			Horizontal alignment
Vertical Alignments	complex		1
Vertical Alignment	single-option			Vertical alignment
Transparency (0.0-1.0)	double			0.0 (fully opaque) and 1.0 (fully transparent)
Font	string
Size (0.0-1.0)	double
Red Colour Component (0-255)	integer
Blue Colour Component (0-255)	integer
Green Colour Component (0-255)	integer
Shadow (0.0-1.0)	double			0.0 (no glow) and 1.0 (strongest glow)
Hard Shadow	boolean
Background Enabled	boolean
Media Expansion	complex		0..1
Add Pre-Roll Frames	integer
Add Post-Roll Frames	integer
Field Order Shift	complex		0..1
Field Order Shift	single-option			Field order shift
Audio Streams	complex		0..1	Information about the audio
Audio Stream	complex		0..1	General information about stream
Audio Codec	transcode-audio-codec
Sample Rate (kHz)	double
Audio Bit Rate	string
Bits Per Sample	integer
Channels	integer
Audio Options	complex		0..1	Audio codec options
Audio Option	complex		0..*	Audio codec option
Audio Option Name	string
Audio Option Value	string
Audio Transformations	complex
Audio Fade	complex		0..1
Audio Fade-In (sec)	string
Audio Fade-Out (sec)	string
Channel Mapping	complex		0..1
Channel Mapping Left	string
Channel Mapping Right	string
Channel Mapping Centre	string
Channel Mapping Rear Left	string
Channel Mapping LFE	string
Audio Gain	complex		0..1
Gain (dB)	double			Audio gain (dB)
Normalise	boolean
Loudness Adjust	complex		0..1
Gain (dB)	double			Gain (dB)
ITU BS 1770	complex		0..1
Target Perceived Loudness (LKFS)	double			Target Perceived Loudness (LKFS)
Restrict Peak Level	complex		0..1	Peak level (dBFS)
Peak Level (dBFS)	double
Static Image	image		0..1	Static image for transcode.

The common way of managing the behaviour of a transcode job is to configure a transcode profile as shown above. There is one option that allows for much lower level manipulation of the transcode profile. The transcode profile template option shown above
 in red allows for the upload of a transcode template. If you set this then it provides much lower level control of the transcode profile and more dynamic control.

Low Level Profiles

It is possible to upload a lower level transcode template to your transcode profile. This template takes the form of a velocity template. The apache velocity engine is a free open-source templating engine. Velocity permits you to use a simple yet powerful template language to reference objects defined in Java code. It is written in 100% pure Java and can be easily embedded into your own applications.

By uploading a velocity template a you can create a direct XML request API call to the underlying transcoder. This template bypasses the higher level media transcode profile and it also bypasses the transcode adapter. The benefits of this are:

• You can craft more customised, lower-level API calls to your transcoder
• Templating and scripting enables you to dynamically create profiles based on variables existing within the context.
• You can access API calls that are new or not yet available in the media transcode profile

The following objects are made available in the context of the velocity template engine:

• An XML document named "document" that exists in the workflow context
• An XML document called "contentMetadata" that represents the metadata instance belonging to the asset that is being transcoded.

Image Transcode Profile

Properties:

Field	Value	Explanation
Icon		Plugin icon
Supports Scripting		Whether configuration supports scripting</td>
Scripting Context	asset, job	What Dalet Flex objects can be referenced from within the scripting context

Configuration

Field	Field Type	Mandatory	Multiplicity	Description
Source	complex		1	Information about the source 0.
Asset Context	string
Image Format	single-option			The asset image format to transcode.
Width	integer			Width of image desired. Ignored if Resize Mode = Fixed Width or Scale.
Height	integer			Height of image desired. Ignored if Resize Mode = Fixed Height or Scale
Width Scale	double			Scaling factor to be applied to the width of the image if Resize Mode = Scale
Height Scale	double			Scaling factor to be applied to the height of the image if Resize Mode = Scale
Resize Mode	single-option			Resize Mode

Media Validate Profile

Properties:

Field	Value	Explanation
Icon		Plugin icon
Supports Scripting		Whether configuration supports scripting
Scripting Context	Asset, Job, Event	What Dalet Flex objects can be referenced from within the scripting context

Configuration

Field	Field Type	Mandatory	Multiplicity	Description
File	complex			Information about the format
File Bit Rate	long
Duration (uSec)	long
Stream Count	integer
Video Stream Count	integer
Audio Stream Count	integer
Format	validation-format
Video Streams	complex		0..1	Video stream information. Adding this implies at least one audio stream should exist.
Video Stream	complex		0..1	Information about a particular video stream
General Video Stream Information	complex			General information about stream
Video Bit Rate	long
Video Language	string
Video Start Time Code	string
Video External Stream	boolean		0..1
Video Codec	validation-video-codec
MPEG-2 Codec Context	complex		0..*	General information about stream
GOP Size	integer
GOP Sequence	string
I-Frame Only	boolean		0..1
Bit Rate Type	validation-bit-rate-type
VBV Buffer Size	integer
MPEG-2 Profile	validation-mpeg-2-profile
MPEG-2 Level	validation-mpeg-2-level
Frame Rate (fps)	double
Frame Width (px)	integer
Frame Height (px)	integer
Pixel Aspect Ratio (e.g. 4:3)	string
Interlace Format	validation-interlace-format
Pixel Format	validation-pixel-format
Standard	validation-standard
Telecine Format	validation-telecine-format
Audio Streams	complex		0..1	Audio stream information. Adding this implies at least one audio stream should exist.
Audio Stream	complex		0..1	Information about a particular video stream
General Audio Stream Information	complex			General information about stream
Audio Bit Rate	long
Audio Language	string
Audio Start Time Code	string
Audio External Stream	boolean		0..1
Audio Codec	validation-audio-codec
Sample Rate (kHz)	double
Channels	integer
Bits Per Sample	integer
Internal Text Metadata	complex		1	Descriptive metadata contained within the file.
Number Of Fields	integer			Number of metadata fields.
Fields	complex
Abstract	string
Author	string
Copyright	string
Description	string

Image Validate Profile

Properties:

Field	Value	Explanation
Icon		Plugin icon
Supports Scripting		Whether configuration supports scripting
Scripting Context	Asset, Job, Event	What Dalet Flex objects can be referenced from within the scripting context

Configuration

Field	Field Type	Mandatory	Multiplicity	Description
Image Format	single-option			The file format of the image.
File Size	long			The size of the file e.g. 100, 100..200, 100;200, >100, <200
Width	integer			The width of the image in pixels e.g. 800, 600..800, 600;800, >600, <800
Height	integer			The height of the image in pixels e.g. 800, 600..800, 600;800, >600, <800
Display Aspect Ratio	string			he aspect ratio of the image e.g. 16:9