Per-title encoding tunes the encoding ladder to each individual piece of content instead of applying one fixed ladder to everything. A simple animation and a grainy, fast-moving action film have very different complexity, so the bitrate needed to look good differs enormously. A fixed ladder over-spends bits on easy content and under-delivers quality on hard content; per-title encoding fixes both.
In practice the encoder analyzes each title (often with multiple test encodes or a complexity model) and chooses the optimal resolution-and-bitrate points for that specific content — fewer rungs, lower bitrates, or different resolution crossover points. The payoff is real: the same perceived quality at materially lower average bitrate, which directly cuts the dominant egress cost, multiplied across a large catalog and millions of streams.
Context-aware encoding extends the idea further by also factoring in the viewing device and network, and modern pipelines lean on perceptual metrics like VMAF to decide where quality is "good enough."
The handbook · 7 volumes
Fora Soft Video Engineering Handbook
Per-title encoding gives cartoons and sports different ladders, which typically saves bitrate without visible quality loss. The seven volumes cover the video stack; for per-title encoding start with Volume 1 on rate control, encoder settings, and quality metrics, then Volume 2 on packaging, with CDN cost in Volume 3. Written by Nikolay Sapunov, CEO at Fora Soft.
Using one fixed ladder for every title and paying for bandwidth you do not need?
We will run a per-title analysis on a sample of your catalog and send ladders with the expected CDN saving. 250+ video products shipped since 2005.
