# Ingest from File **URL:** \ **Category:** Wowza Streaming Engine\ **Created:** [August 16, 2014, 5:36pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/ingest-from-file/43681 "2014-08-16T17:36:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![George\_Bray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@George\_Bray](https://community.wowza.com/u/George_Bray)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2014, 5:36pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/ingest-from-file/43681/1 "2014-08-16T17:36:15Z")
Hello, I’m new here. I’m converting a large archive to be useful with adaptive bitrates, so I’m wondering what options there are for ingesting the media through the transcoder? My source files are H.264 (hinted quicktime). To ingest them into Wowza must I record a live stream with the transcoder enabled, or is there a way to have them transcoded/rated from the filesystem/shell? thanks! George ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_Shields](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.wowza.com/paul_shields/32/390_2.png) [@Paul\_Shields](https://community.wowza.com/u/Paul_Shields)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2014, 11:42am UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/ingest-from-file/43681/2 "2014-08-16T11:42:14Z")
Hi, You could look at playing in your content into a “live” Wowza app as an MPEG-TS stream using something like [VLC]([https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-use-vlc-as-a-live-stream-encoder-with-wowza-media-server-mpeg-ts(MPEG-TS](https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-use-vlc-as-a-live-stream-encoder-with-wowza-media-server-mpeg-ts%28MPEG-TS)) to encode. That will allow you to pass the ingested stream into the Transcoder. Alternatively you can of course just use VLC (or [ffmpeg](https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-use-ffmpeg-with-wowza-media-server-mpeg-ts%28MPEG-TS%29)) to do the transcoding at the filesystem level. I think they both have settings to determine bit rate and preserve H.264 output etc. Paul ---
**Author:** ![Zoran](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.wowza.com/zoran/32/385_2.png) [@Zoran](https://community.wowza.com/u/Zoran)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 7:16pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/ingest-from-file/43681/3 "2014-08-20T19:16:30Z")
Hello, The Wowza Transcoder addon is supported only for Live streaming. if you want to implement adaptive bitrate streaming, you will need to generate the different bitrate VOD renditions of the same media file using an encoder tool. You can follow the instructions from the “[How to do adaptive bitrate streaming](https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-do-adaptive-bitrate-streaming)” forum article describing how to do [VOD adaptive bitrate streaming](https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-do-adaptive-bitrate-streaming#abr_vod). You need to make sure the different bitrate renditions are properly key-frame aligned in order for adaptive bitrate delivery to work properly. You can also check out these FFMPEG instructions on creating the key-frame aligned VOD files: > [@Frequently requested FFMPEG command examples for Wowza](http://community.wowza.com/t/-/36326): > > Example commands and information for using FFmpeg as a live video/audio encoder with Wowza Media Server. Updated for FFmpeg Build git-a85b4a5 64-bit Static (2012-07-30) Note: Wowza Media Systems provides these instructions on as “AS-IS” basis. FFmpeg is not a Wowza Media Systems product. If you have problems getting FFmpeg to work properly it is best to contact FFmpeg support through their forums or wiki. The information collected here is a brief overview of common FFmpeg solutions. It is int… Zoran ---
**Author:** ![Zoran](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.wowza.com/zoran/32/385_2.png) [@Zoran](https://community.wowza.com/u/Zoran)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 9:27pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/ingest-from-file/43681/4 "2014-08-26T21:27:27Z")
Hi, Thank you for sharing your research with us. This information can be useful for lots of Wowza users. Zoran ---
**Author:** ![George\_Bray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@George\_Bray](https://community.wowza.com/u/George_Bray)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 7:25pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/ingest-from-file/43681/5 "2014-08-20T19:25:06Z")
Thanks Paul. So to confirm, I can transcode the files to the format of the stream files externally from Wowza, and Wowza will be happy to use them in an adaptive streaming scenario (yes?). Are the stream files created by the transcoder from an incoming stream in a special format/segmentation, and if so is there a ready-made ffmpeg incantation that produces it? Sorry if these are newbie questions! George ---
**Author:** ![George\_Bray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@George\_Bray](https://community.wowza.com/u/George_Bray)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 3:02am UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/ingest-from-file/43681/6 "2014-08-22T03:02:13Z")
Thanks Zoran, that helped me a lot. I can see how to create keyframe aligned renditions with ffmpeg. Do you know of any commercial encoders that might also perform this. I notice Telestream Episode can do most things, but not sure about keyframe alignment. Apple Compressor?, Others? As we have so much media to do, it is worth looking for an automated way to create the renditions. But considering the other way, to get Wowza transcoder to create the renditions from a live stream, if done this way I think it would be a human process to create the SMIL, play/capture the stream, and name it correctly for VOD. While I like the idea of using Wowza Transcoder and NVENC to crunch through all the existing media files, it sounds like setting it up to do this will be quite a manual task without getting under the hood with your API. Thanks for your extensive and helpful documentation. George ---
**Author:** ![George\_Bray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@George\_Bray](https://community.wowza.com/u/George_Bray)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 3:04am UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/ingest-from-file/43681/7 "2014-08-22T03:04:58Z")
Ah, looks like Episode doesn’t do it. [http://forum.telestream.net/forum/messageview.aspx?catid=20&threadid=15328](http://forum.telestream.net/forum/messageview.aspx?catid=20&threadid=15328) ---
**Author:** ![George\_Bray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@George\_Bray](https://community.wowza.com/u/George_Bray)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 4:34am UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/ingest-from-file/43681/8 "2014-08-22T04:34:25Z")
Main concept Enterprise can do it. And Sorenson Squeeze [http://forum.sorensonmedia.com/forum/content.php?281-Adaptive-Bitrate-Encoding](http://forum.sorensonmedia.com/forum/content.php?281-Adaptive-Bitrate-Encoding)