US Patent 11470139 Video encoding for low-concurrency linear channels

Systems, methods, and devices relating to video encoding for low-concurrency video channels are described herein. A video processing system may receive a manifest request for an encoded video stream associated with a selected channel. Based on the manifest request, the video processing system may request for a real-time linear (RTL) encoder to be started to encode the input compressed video stream for the channel in real-time. Also based on the manifest request, the video processing system may assign a faster-than-real-time (FTRT) encoder from a pool of already-running FTRT encoders to encode the video stream in real-time until the RTL encoder is fully started. The FTRT encoder may encode at a lower quality level to enable expedited real-time encoding. Based on the RTL encoder being fully started, the video processing system may switch the encoding from the FTRT encoder to the RTL encoder. The FTRT encoder may be returned to the FTRT encoder pool.