Because ManyVids is a community centered platform that is focused on giving the best possible tools for success to our MV Stars, we always strive to be responsive to feedback. Recently, we’ve updated and streamlined our Upload process and introduced a new method of encoding our vid content. Some creators have expressed concerns that these changes will affect the quality of their content so we’re taking a moment to go through in detail to explain that vid quality won’t be compromised and that these updates make for a faster, better, and more efficient MV.
We’re going to go through everything in very minute and technical details, but before we do we want to ensure you these updates are positive for the platform, the MV Stars, and the MV Members. At ManyVids, customer experience is our top priority. We want to distribute the highest quality vids, to the widest audience, in the most efficient way possible. For this reason, we are investing our resources into expanding our vid infrastructure and improving upon the experiences our MV Members and fans have grown accustomed to.
Because of the industrial scale and specific technical tools we use, the auto-encoding of vids ensures an amazing and stunning vid quality that is not available to those using home computers to encode. All the major adult streaming services already do a similar auto-encoding, as do most mainstream sites, we’re simply meeting the industry standards and in many cases surpassing them.
With these updates, MV Members will have a better experience vid streaming with less buffering, faster downloads, and content working on even more devices! Again all of this, while keeping the content looking amazing!
Already since the launch of these updates, we have worked on changes and improvements and we will keep monitoring the video qualities and keep adjusting to give the best experience to our Members and MV Stars. We want our creators to be as successful as possible through our platform and in the next month, we plan to roll out additional technologies that will boost quality, efficiency and user experience even further.
Now we’re going to go through the technical aspects in a precise way. Let’s start with some definitions:
Bit: A binary digit, the smallest unit of measure for size of data.
Bitrate: The average number of bits in each second of video.
It’s important to note that bitrate is simply a measure of size, not a measure of quality. It’s true that there is often a correlation of quality to file size, but it is mostly dependent on the technology stack used to compress video files.
In order to understand the current update, let’s first talk about the vid size and quality.
A raw vid file is considered fully lossless compression. To stay fully lossless, raw files have a piece of data for every single pixel in each frame of the vid. For example, just 1 frame of 4K content has 8 million pixels. When we multiply that by 30 frames per second, and we get 240 million pixels per second of content. Considering each pixel has up to 24 bits, you get 5.7 billion bits (or 712 MB) of raw uncompressed content. This means a raw lossless 4K vid that’s 10 mins in length would be over 425 GB in size!
At 425 GB, the vid would be difficult to manage locally on your computer, not to mention impossible to transfer over the internet (where it takes the average American 1.2 hours for every 1 GB downloaded). For this reason, almost any vid file you’ve ever watched (including those that come directly from your camera) have been processed to reduce file size and make them more manageable, which is often referred to as compression.
For those of you who don’t know, compression is the process which makes file sizes smaller using a series of highly complex algorithms that have one focus in mind–reducing redundancy to maintain video quality as perceived by the human eye.
Currently, there are two main types of compression used in video formats:
Intraframe compression: reduction of redundancy within a single frame
Interframe compression: reduction of redundancy between frames
Interframe compression
Reduces redundancy between frames by comparing macroblocks and coding tree units of pixels between two frames in a sequence, and only storing only the changes. For example, if Block X is the same in both frames, so it’s just brought over to the next block. Block Y is different, so the differences are recorded and passed on as a new block on the next frame.
MV uses a combination of both intraframe and interframe techniques to compress files with no perceptual quality loss to ensure a great experience for all of our visitors. To ensure our video quality stays high, we use methods to objectively measure video quality for compressed videos automatically.
We use a technique called VMAF, which is developed and managed by Netflix to do quality assurance across all of their videos. VMAF compares the visual quality of two files and produces a value of 0 to 100 as a measure of quality. A VMAF score above 93 is generally considered visually imperceivable.
Let’s apply this to some specific examples, you can click the links to watch the vid previews and compare them yourself.
Example
Your Wife Paid Me Uncompressed
Size: 17.93 Bitrate 4.9 MBPS
Here are two charts comparing the uncompressed and compressed files, click the image below to see a larger version:
Your Wife Paid Me Compressed
Size: 12.25MB Bitrate 3.3 MBPS
VMAF: 95.999 (no perceptual quality loss)
Some creators have also asked about audio quality. We take this aspect of the content on MV seriously and our encoding process ensures that that audio is also at a high quality. Since launching we’ve improved our audio streaming to a rate that ranges from 96 kps up to a maximum of 320 kps. Plus, we’ve had an improvement in our CRF. The Constant Rate Factor (CRF) is the default quality (and rate control) setting for the encoders, we use. The values are between 18 and 51, where lower values result in better quality, at the expense of higher file sizes. Our CRF has gone from 23 to 20. We recognize that audio is an important aspect of the awesome content on MV.
We will soon post more information regarding bitrate ranges for the various resolutions of compressed vid files.
The MV Team is here for you and we take your comments and feedback seriously. We hope this post addresses concerns that have been raised and know we’re forever striving to make ManyVids the best possible platform on the ‘net!
Always here to help.
- MV Team
Featured MV Stars: rushlightDante, SashaKingUK, LeahVega_
Thanks to the following MV Stars for providing their vid samples: Alexandra Storm XXX
The following vids were featured in our examples, check them out on ManyVids: Your Wife Paid Me
Is there a way to change video quality? My android phone has real trouble with playing a 1080p video and I was wondering if there is any way to change the res to 720p instead
You ruined your platform with this! I'm buying a file advertised as "1.08 GB" just to get it re-encoded to a crappy quality weighing only "151.60 mb". You chose server costs over quality. Go to hell and take your shitty re-encoder with you!
this. Why is the file I bought 2.72 but I can only stream in 1.1GB?
Remove this feature, you are destroying the video quality of the production!
This is awful.
This will be their demise. I bought in the thousands from them and now I will no longer do so!
Hopefully it will insure that all my brand new 4K content will stay 4K!
Sadly they chose server costs over the quality of your videos :(
Ever since this update I haven0t been able to upload any new video
Same here
so is this why the uploading takes about 10 times longer than before? before the update I could have 2GB file uploaded and processed in 20mins - now it´s taking FOREVER, and fails many time. currently been waiting for a 2GB video to be processed for 3 hours...
I think this could bring even greater video quality to file size ratio if you recommend to MV creators to upload the uncompressed version of their vids. Then a proper encode will be done on the MV backend. That way MV creators don't have to be tech savvy and deal with the hassle of finding optimal encoding settings which is quite hard.
Where do you upload been looking for an upload button all night.
Thank you for explaining and laying it out for us so cleanly!
This is why I have no problem with the earnings cut we give to ManyVids. You do the complicated technology part for us so we can focus on our craft! I for one am grateful for all of the technical work that goes on behind the scenes that we can't see. Thank you to all of the people who work on the technical side to keep this site going for us, and help us sell our content!
As long as video quality won't be compromised... OK!
For people who already compress and are worried about the quality of this encode:
If you use a program to publish like Vegas, or PowerDirector, manyvids compression does do a much better job than those for quality. I compressed the example video myself in the same bitrate that MV used in the example compression and manyvids version was far superior. They really are doing some good work with it.
It was even better than handbrake on 2 pass encoding, on slow profile (which I use). It wasn't until I moved handbrake to the VERY slow preset, which is excruciatingly slow for practical use for most people, did the quality match Manyvids encoder profile.
So long as they get the bitrates right for quality across resolutions and frame-rates, this will actually be a quality improvement for most of us who already compress their own videos. Just upload at a higher bitrate than you usually do (2-4 times), and your videos will look better for it (and take less time to encode on our end).
They messed it up, I will no longer be buying from this platform :\
Thank you!
Thank you for the breakdown on all of these important updates. ❤️
There seems to be an issue with uploading images. A lot of the time when I upload pictures to my MV Crush they become rotated? It's been that way for a while and it keeps happening. Anyone else? Shoutouts to my crushes who keep having to contort there necks
yes, happens all the time, very annoying...
Does this apply to just streaming videos or paid for downloads as well? What about customs?
Streaming videos are already compressed, this is for download quality. Customs are also uploaded by models via the same upload system as store vids, so we can only assume customs will also be compressed.
Thanks. I'm not scared of high quality compression, but I do hope everyone sees and follows your advice about uploading at a higher bit rate!
I understand device compatibility is a thing so sure, encode to standard mp4, so if MV Star uploads flv or mov or avi it all gets converted to mp4, but why compression!!? Just stop there at conversion to mp4, dont mess with compression, that gives you device compatibility without sacrificing quality. So if an MV star already uploads a standarized mp4, dont mess with that vid.
Who asked for "faster download speeds" anyways?? I want quality topmost, faster download speeds are not even an issue... Specially not when it comes with a quality compromise
Please don't do this. There is a perceptual quality loss as many others also stated.
You can maybe offer this OPTIONAL for unloaders who want it.
I'm not buying anything else from this platform until they remove this forced re-encoding feature.
OK cool, but we don't want this
Amen to this!
We are already encoding to meet MV requirements, there doesn't seem to be any reason to re-encode uploads that are going to be downloaded as files by customers. The only reason to re-encode seems to be to provide different encodings per device or to attempt to have streams cater for customer available bandwidth. This sort of encoding should be as requested, shouldn't it? The files as I uploaded them, should remain the same as they are for download.
Umm, file working on every device to start. I personally had so many not work on my Phone, worked on windows only, etc... Faster downloads. We are going to 4k vids here, and I am sure ever single model is not a compression guru... Ive bought a vid before that was 3GB and the quality was total crap. Could have easily been a 150MB file. I am not an expert here but for them to be able to stream content correctly, they need standardized files. That is probably why they are using the VMAF scale in which NETFLIX bases their streamable content on.
exactly, the new compression is meant for streaming. If you choose to download video instead, then it should be the original version, not the compresison.
And please go get VLC player for your iphone, you wont struggle with vids not playing that way :)
And again, if MV just offered to download either original or "high quality" then they would cover all bases. If you want smaller size and are okay with quality compromise, then download high quality version, if you want best of best then download original. Why cant MV offer to download either version? and leave it to their customers to choose which is best for them?
Doesn't work. AVIs, WMV, or vids encoded wrongly with bad codecs do not play with VLC, even on IOS. Even I know that and I been through it with files here from Stars who dont know how to encode vids for every device. I will put my faith more in a team of professional developers to create a file that works everywhere, and that is properly encoded.
There's never been anything I've downloaded from MV that wont play on VLC. Would be interested to know which video you are talking about.
And I cant put my faith on a team of professional developers that don't listen to their users. Its cool they are offering this re-encoding, I'm sure it benefits some MV Stars and some members, but not everyone. And as such they should offer both versions to download or a way to opt out.
Maybe 2 versions sure, but opt out makes no sense. Also instead of storing 1 copy they would be storing multiple copies for 1 vid. Unless there is various prices for "download original", I dont see them taking in that cost. Not one video distribution or streaming business would do that, lol. Imagine youtube, netflix, twitter, vimeo asking you "hey, upload your content but please select if you want to be responsible for the encoding to our 500 million users? That seems very professional. It's actually a ridiculous demand. Look at pornhub, modelhub, etc... and their network. Its all encoded and compressed on their end, and it should be. With the volume they do they have to. Manyvids is probably starting to hit that type of traffic numbers.
Not making that in cost? storage is not expensive. And MV already takes a 40% cutt off of every sale, I cant see them not making the cost.
More than not making the cost, I would say this is maximizing profits, but they for sure are not loosing money today as it currently is.
Why do you want MV to do the same error others are doing? Why not have a differentiation? If a model sells videos on MV and on PornHub and I want to have the best quality video, today I purchase it on MV, with this now theres just nothing stopping me from buying or getting the video from somewhere else.
Comparing same frame screenshots from both videos, the "uncompressed" (already compressed by us) has A TON more fine detail on the skin tones and darks. Your compression is unnecessary. You can't compress without quality loss, and most of our editing software does a fine job with compressing.
The ONLY reason you are seeing smaller file sizes here is because of quality loss.
Your response to customers saying "We don't want this" shouldn't be "Let us explain why you are wrong!"
I already stopped buying from them because of this forced and unnecessary implementation!
I see the example and is very cool, looks very similar both videos. This is so good because sometimes some guys let me know my videos looks better when I give them one link for download or see it on line when them see it here and was the same video, same compression and quality.
The real test for compression will be with a fast and full of movements clip of video, the demo video has almost no movements.
In another themes, when I upload content to my Crushes, don't appear the screen advice and I think nothing is happen but yes, is uploading. Is good idea put again that screen advice or another way to inform our content to crush is uploading.
This is the unsexiest article ever. I just want to buy porn. Why argue about neck wrinkles and bitrates - just post vids that get me off! If pixel-porn is a fetish I’m sorry if I just kink shamed. :S
lmao!! 😂😂😂 this made me lol
Aha!! 😂🤣🤗
Okay, so watched the examples, the neck wrinkles on original are clear and defined, on the compressed one they are all blurry. So I can see the quality downgrade on the examples that were shared.
Understand compression is targeted for quality but still compression is compression and there's a quality loss between the original file MV stars are uploading and the file we MV buyers get after your compression. Even if quality loss is %5, or %3, or whatever, I would still prefer to get the original file the MV stars are uploading as you can be 100% sure it will have higher quality than post compression, no matter how you look at it its impossible for a compressed video to look better than its original file.
Like you stated the videos are already compressed to begin with by cameras, etc, so why compressed them further on MV? I want the best quality possible no matter the file size, and that means the original file the models are uploading.
You can also see a difference in the model's hair as well. On the original video you can see the models hair clearly, on the compressed one it becomes blurry
Don't understand why you would say these quality changes are not detectable to the human eye, I already pointed out two of them, I can keep pointing differences out but I think I've already made my point :)
This is ridiculous because with this changes, I can literally get the better quality video working with the model outside of your MV platform, than if I buy the video on MV. This will just cause us MV members/buyers to try and get the original videos from the models outside of the platform which kind of ruins the purpose of your site.
I can't see the difference and I have a very clinic eye, I don't see the blurry.
Exactly... 99% of people do not see the difference. What I see? 70% less file size. Now that is hot and will get me off...
Awesome!
HI I AM SAMANTHA HAYES OF MAKING LOVE TO AVERY MOON AND JUST WANT YOU GUYS TO KNOW: I told ManyVids they could use My clip as an example as long as I could see it first and approve it before they wrote this, because I do not support what they are doing. They sent the first version and My editor and I did not approve. They sent a second version (the one above I assume) that My editor has not had a chance to look at yet. Since My editor obviously has a better eye for the subtle differences than I do, I am upset that despite a texted agreement that I would get to approve their compression before public view, this was posted before I could approve it. Take that knowledge as you wish.
Hey, sorry for any misunderstanding. Thought we had the green light, very sorry if we got it wrong. We've removed your example vids.
I just wish I had gotten the chance for My editor to make sure it was as intended, and in the spirit of transparency (something I and many other stars believe in) wanted viewers to know that I do not approve of these changes. Maybe you should put it back up, as you can see members CAN see a difference between what creators intend to put out vs what your compression does to our hard work.
Actually Your example I found I could not tell at all... I dont remember the stats now but 30 seconds, size went from 70mb to 20mb. A drop of about 70%!! Thats amazing, and I can BARELY tell the difference... I think for every unhappy person, there seems to be 100,000 happy ones...
I dont see 100,000 cheering, just you :)
I did not get to see your example but im sure i would have been able to see differences in quality
I doubt a customer cares about saving that 50mb when they find out the quality loss is noticeable
Perfect Nemesis - If you are not looking for UHD 4k quality, that is fine, not everyone is, and I understand that. Some people are, and that is why some, but not all creators and viewers are upset. Barely telling the difference is still telling a difference to a perfectionist and someone who likes detail in what they pay for. I and many creators would prefer the ability to opt in ourselves, or even have customers opt in. I just don't want people who have incredible vision and pay for porn *specifically* because they seek an extremely high quality image to think I'm not giving them my best is all, and needed to make it clear to the creators here for the sake of transparency, something creators such as myself really need on this issue. I would personally love it if I could upload only the 4k files as they are intended to be viewed and allow you, the viewer to decide what resolution and size works for you.
Maybe that makes sense. Only an opt out feature or a price to download original UHD 4k quality, but for a price (for them to store that original file). Makes no sense for anything other than 4k, as the demand for UHD 4k quality at its uncompressed form is probably less than 1% of users. 4k cannot be viewed on over 90% of devices and monitors., so it's really a niche. Actually you cant even stream 4K anywhere, because its not supported by current user's bandwidth. Look at all tube sites.. No real 4K.
It does make sense. Just because you do not have 4k monitors and pay for 4k porn, does not mean other people do not. They do. If you spent hundreds or thousands on the newest, hottest thing, and specifically paid for porn compatible with that specific newest hottest thing, you would be disappointed. People who pay for 4k, pay for 4k because they want 4k. People who want 4k know that with high quality comes downloading and large file sizes, because that's what they are paying for. Just because you are content with a corrupt file that is not as the model intended you to see it or do not have the capabilities to even see the difference, does not mean other people are content and cannot see the difference on their devices. That's the whole point. They are here saying that they can see the difference. The people who pay My bills, pay My bills because I offer UHD 4k content they like.
While I understand your idea that UHD 4k as the model intended should be a price to store the file if it's larger, their previous article offered us the ability to upload up to 10GB and offer capabilities to compress it up to 60%, which would be 4GB. If I already compress to 4GB or 3GB, why should it be further compressed and impact the quality I worked to put out specifically for the people who seek that specific UHD quality, if they are capable of hosting files 4GB? If models are unable to export and compress their videos themselves and mobile viewers are having problems, I am totally in favor of allowing the members the option to download a lower quality and opt in to the compression. There is no reason you should be paying for porn you can't watch how you want to watch it, and that's the whole point:
If people are paying for UHD 4k quality, that's what they are paying for and not receiving if this compression is across the board and not offered as an optional feature. So few people pay for porn that it is all about niche-and 4k is one of those that will be impacted by this. You've definitely opened my eyes to an issue I was not aware of, and I definitely feel it should be opt in if you can't watch porn how you watch porn, but I hope you can see how making this mandatory across the board policy prevents other people from watching porn how they want to watch it.
As I currently use my phone's camera, which I upload in 720p (generally 1080p if my phone has the space after editing) what does this mean for my vids? I'm sorta tech lingo savvy but not here. Is it going to improve the quality, or mess with it?
As a subscriber, I'm not happy about the changes. I've seen a video straight from the source and the same video after being uploaded, and there is a noticeable difference. Your subscribers and models both deserve better.
Are you comparing it to the streamed vid or the downloaded? This covers the downloaded content only I believe
just watch the example video side by side, there's clearly quality loss on the compressed one. just look at the neck wrinkles or at the model's hair and they look blurry/washed out
i think the mass will not care at all that i can see 20 hairs down to the DNA. The quality is still extremely high, and I prefer a vid that is 800MB instead of 4GB, as long as the quality is very high of course, which it seems to be. I am sure over 99% of paying users will agree with me. Makes sense to cater more to the mass imo, like a google, facebook, netflix, vimeo, etc would do. Imagine the internet with only raw files uploaded by the end users? Disaster...
They are not raw files, did you not read the MV post? Rarely a video is raw, cameras and video editors already compress them. MV is compressing them further.
Unlike you I do want highest quality regardless of size. If i can get a better quality video for 1 GB more then so be it, I take the extra GB.
At the end of the day what I want is options. One thing is to enforce this and another to make it an opt-in or option for MV Stars. Let the MV Stars decide whether they want this additional compression or not. Why enforce it?
I doubt the "mass" prefers lower quality videos tbh, I seriously doubt that statement.
But if they can make it optional then MV stars that think like you can upload their videos using MV compression, but for MV Stars that don't then MV should allow them to opt out of it.
Opt in? Not sure why they would want that. The goal is to compress all vids to a standardized file across the board. Ive had quite a few vids not play on my iphone tablet, vids that only play on windows, etc.. Makes no sense at all. Everyone is optimizing with their own settings, so you have a 800k vids compressed 800k different ways! There is a reason no professional streaming business does this, and MV seems to have put a foot in the right direction when it comes to compatibility for the masses, still keeping pretty amazing quality. I would like to see downloable resolutions soon!!
no wonder you cant tell quality differences! you are watching the vids on your phone! so that it hahaha
Streaming is different than downloading.
exactly, one thing is to stream videos like netflix/prime video/hulu etc, here, sure you can stream the vids you buy, but you can also DOWNLOAD them, and i want to download the original, not compressed. Compressed is fine for streaming off of MV, i agree, to stream an original video you need better internet connection and to stream 4k it can be hard, but if i download the video, i want original.
You aren't just seeing "less detail", you aren't seeing what we intend you to see. Ugly Motion blur, poor contrast, and frame skipping are just a FEW issues with the new encoding.
Models: look at this side by side comparison about how what you’re doing is trashing the quality of my videos and going to result in substantially more work on my end to fix it.
ManyVids: hold my dildo while I pretend to listen to your concerns and take them seriously. Now that that’s done, here’s an article that is extremely unhelpful about how we haven’t and won’t change anything and how your eyeballs are lying to you. If your sales are down, it’s probably your own fault! 🤷🏻♀️
This is actually a great article and it makes total sense. It reassured me as a buyer and I can't notice the difference between the uncompressed and compressed vid.
Your comment is way out of place imo..
Honestly if you’re a buyer you get no say on this side of things. This is NOT the first time ManyVids has made huge changes with no input then tried to gaslight models. From what I’ve been told about this article this is correct but when you’re compressing videos that have already been compressed by the models it changes. Whereas before I could upload a 1gb vid, for the same quality I’ll now need to edit and encode that video to be 4-5x the size. This adds hours on to my backend work time AND would crash the computers of many. Stay in your lane, my dude.
No offence but file quality is more bout the buyer then the seller. We pay money to view high quality vids. I am the one dishing out 40$ US for a vid. I would be fully satisfied to pay 40$ for a 1080 with this compression and no noticible loss in quality but 50% less file size. Win win IMO
woosh
Larger size and bandwidth does not mean better quality... But okay. You trying to target a specific bitrate means nothing...
What do you mean no noticeable loss? I can clearly see the quality loss, just look at the neck wrinkles or the hair, they look blurry/washed out in some places... :S
Nemisis, are completely misunderstanding Norah. That's what the "woosh" was for, it went over your head. She's ALREADY compressed for your benefit, but she's complaining about her video being compressed twice. That's my issue also. I already roughly compress to the level shown in this article, as I'm sure Norah does, and our videos are going to get another lossy pass of encoding trashing our image quality.
And yes, we have to upload 4-5 times the file size to counter this change, which is a pain the butt. Norah and I are lucky to know how to counter this, but a lot of people are just going to upload already properly compressed video and suffer a degradation in quality.
TL;DR: We know compression is good, your missing her point.
Awesome