# Need for Transrate when using Transcode?

**URL:** <https://community.wowza.com/t/need-for-transrate-when-using-transcode/45190>\
**Category:** Wowza Streaming Engine\
**Created:** [April 27, 2015, 10:32am UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/need-for-transrate-when-using-transcode/45190 "2015-04-27T10:32:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Frank\_Rachal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b782af/32.png) [@Frank\_Rachal](https://community.wowza.com/u/Frank_Rachal)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 10:32am UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/need-for-transrate-when-using-transcode/45190/1 "2015-04-27T10:32:35Z")

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So I am doing testing using Wowza on an ec2 instance. When only using Transcode instead of both Transcode AND Transrate, my CPU usage drops to almost nothing, which is great.

But i’m trying to figure out: Do I need to use the transrate settings if I am using the Transcoder? Seems like if I am using both that they are doing similar things (unnecessarily) if I am pushing H.264 video to the server.

I also turned off the h265 setting as well (don’t need that…yet).

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![sal\_jefferson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sal\_jefferson](https://community.wowza.com/u/sal_jefferson)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 12:20pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/need-for-transrate-when-using-transcode/45190/2 "2015-04-27T12:20:56Z")

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Transrate is for when you want to down sample the video quality, i.e when providing adaptive bitrate streams. Transcoding is converting audio/video from one codec to another.

For more info please take a look at this wiki:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcoding](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcoding)

Regards,

Salvadore

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**Author:** ![sal\_jefferson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sal\_jefferson](https://community.wowza.com/u/sal_jefferson)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 2:35pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/need-for-transrate-when-using-transcode/45190/3 "2015-04-27T14:35:29Z")

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If you do not need to Transcode the stream, you can use the Transcoder to Transrate the multi-bitrate renditions and bypass Transcoding.

It will be the same workflow but you would use the [Transrate template as opposed to the Transcode template.](https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-set-up-and-run-wowza-transcoder-for-live-streaming#template_encode)

Salvadore

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**Author:** ![Frank\_Rachal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b782af/32.png) [@Frank\_Rachal](https://community.wowza.com/u/Frank_Rachal)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 2:53pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/need-for-transrate-when-using-transcode/45190/4 "2015-04-27T14:53:50Z")

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> Transrate is for when you want to down sample the video quality, i.e when providing adaptive bitrate streams. Transcoding is converting audio/video from one codec to another.
> 
> For more info please take a look at this wiki:
> 
> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcoding](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcoding)
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Salvadore

I get that part of it. I guess what I am saying is that If I am pushing h264 video to wowza and am outputting h264 adaptive bitrate streams, do I only need to output transrated as well as transcoded streams? It puts much more on the CPU to do both.