Video Auto Quality
video-aq
Controls the quality analysis mode used when encoding video, allowing you to choose between instant delivery and maximum bandwidth efficiency.
video-aq accepts two values:
auto— The default. Uses fast heuristic analysis to determine encoding quality. The video begins encoding immediately with near-zero overhead.enhanced— Runs a deep VMAF-based analysis to empirically determine the optimal bitrate for the specific video. This produces significantly smaller files while guaranteeing a perceptual quality floor of VMAF 95+.
Enhanced Mode
Asynchronous Processing
video-aq=enhanced is always processed asynchronously. The first request for a video will return 423 Locked while the analysis runs (typically 10–15 seconds). Poll the URL after a few seconds to receive the optimized video.
Enhanced mode runs a GPU-accelerated VMAF analysis on the video before encoding. The engine probes multiple quality points across the video’s rate-distortion curve and selects the bitrate that achieves VMAF 95+ with the smallest possible file size.
Expected bandwidth savings compared to standard encoding:
- 40–60% reduction for low-complexity content such as screencasts and presentations
- 15–25% reduction for standard film and high-motion content
Enhanced mode consumes additional render credits compared to standard encoding.
The analysis result is cached per asset via Imgix’s Cachelock system. After the first request completes, all subsequent deliveries use the pre-computed quality settings with no additional delay or overhead.