Terminology and entity changes between Media Services V2 and V3

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Important

It is no longer necessary to migrate from Azure Media Service v2 to v3 as deprecation of V2 API will align with the retirement of Azure Media Services. Please see the Azure Media Services retirement guide for more information.

This article describes the terminology differences between Azure Media Services v2 to v3.

Terminology changes

  • A Locator is now called a Streaming Locator.
  • A Channel is now called a Live Event.
  • A Program is now called a Live Output.
  • A Task is now called a JobOutput, which is part of a Job.

Entity changes

V2 Entity V3 Entity Guidance Accessible to V3 Updated by V3
AccessPolicy The entity AccessPolicies doesn't exist in V3. No No
Asset Asset Yes Yes
AssetDeliveryPolicy StreamingPolicy Yes No
AssetFile The entity AssetFiles doesn't exist in V3. Although files (storage blobs) that you upload are still considered files.

Use the Azure Storage APIs to enumerate the blobs in a container instead. There are two ways to apply a transform to the files with a job:

Files already uploaded to storage: The URI would include the asset ID for jobs to be done on assets within a storage account.

Files to be uploaded during the transform and job process: The asset is created in storage, a SAS URL is returned, files are uploaded to storage, and then the transform is applied to the files.		 No No
Channel LiveEvent Live Events replace Channels from the v2 API. They carry over most features, and have more new features like live transcriptions, stand-by mode, and support for RTMPS ingest.

See live event in scenario based live streaming		 No No
ContentKey ContentKeys is no longer an entity, it's now a property of a streaming locator.

In v3, the content key data is either associated with the StreamingLocator (for output encryption) or the Asset itself (for client side storage encryption).		 Yes No
ContentKeyAuthorizationPolicy ContentKeyPolicy Yes No
ContentKeyAuthorizationPolicyOption ContentKeyPolicyOptions are included in the ContentKeyPolicy. Yes No
IngestManifest The entity IngestManifests doesn't exist in V3. Uploading files in V3 involves the Azure storage API. Assets are first created and then files are uploaded to the associated storage container. There are many ways to get data into an Azure Storage container that can be used instead. JobInputHttp also provides a way to download a job input from a given url if desired. No No
IngestManifestAsset There are many ways to get data into an Azure Storage container that can be used instead. JobInputHttp also provides a way to download a job input from a given url if desired. No No
IngestManifestFile There are many ways to get data into an Azure Storage container that can be used instead. JobInputHttp also provides a way to download a job input from a given url if desired. No No
Job Job Create a Transform before creating a Job. No No
JobTemplate Transform Use a Transform instead. A transform is a separate entity from a job and is reuseable. No No
Locator StreamingLocator Yes No
MediaProcessor Instead of looking up the MediaProcessor to use by name, use the desired preset when defining a transform. The preset used will determine the media processor used by the job system. See encoding topics in scenario based encoding. No NA (readonly in V2)
NotificationEndPoint Notifications in v3 are handled via Azure Event Grid. The NotificationEndpoint is replaced by the Event Grid subscription registration which also encapsulates the configuration for the types of notifications to receive (which in v2 was handled by the JobNotificationSubscription of the Job, the TaskNotificationSubscription of the Task, and the Telemetry ComponentMonitoringSetting). The v2 Telemetry was split between Azure Event Grid and Azure Monitor to fit into the enhancements of the larger Azure ecosystem. No No
Program LiveOutput Live Outputs now replace Programs in the v3 API. No No
StreamingEndpoint StreamingEndpoint Streaming Endpoints remain primarily the same. They're used for dynamic packaging, encryption, and delivery of HLS and DASH content for both live and on-demand streaming either direct from origin, or through the CDN. New features include support for better Azure Monitor integration and charting. Yes Yes
Task JobOutput Replaced by JobOutput (which is no longer a separate entity in the API). See encoding topics in scenario based encoding. No No
TaskTemplate TransformOutput Replaced by TransformOutput (which is no longer a separate entity in the API). See encoding topics in scenario based encoding. No No
Inputs Inputs Inputs and outputs are now at the Job level. See encoding topics in scenario based encoding No No
Outputs Outputs Inputs and outputs are now at the Job level. In V3, the metadata format changed from XML to JSON. Live Outputs start on creation and stop when deleted. See encoding topics in scenario based encoding No No
Other changes V2 V3
Storage
Storage The V3 SDKs are now decoupled from the Storage SDK, which gives you more control over the version of Storage SDK you want to use and avoids versioning issues.
Encoding
Encoding bit rates bit rates measured in kbps ex: 128 (kbps) bits per second ex: 128000 (bits/second)
Encoding DRM FairPlay In Media Services V2, initialization vector (IV) can be specified. In Media Services V3, the FairPlay IV cannot be specified.
Premium encoder Premium encoder and Legacy Indexer The Premium Encoder and the legacy media analytics processors (Azure Media Services Indexer 2 Preview, Face Redactor, etc.) are not accessible via V3. We added support for audio channel mapping to the Standard encoder. See Audio in the Media Services Encoding Swagger documentation.
See encoding topics in scenario based encoding
Transforms and jobs
Job based processing HTTPS For file-based Job processing, you can use a HTTPS URL as the input. You don't need to have content already stored in Azure, nor do you need to create Assets.
ARM templates for jobs ARM templates didn't exist in V2. A transform can be used to build reusable configurations, to create Azure Resource Manager templates, and isolate processing settings between multiple customers or tenants.
Live events
Streaming endpoint A streaming endpoint represents a streaming service that can deliver content directly to a client player application, or to a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for further distribution. Streaming Endpoints remain primarily the same. They're used for dynamic packaging, encryption, and delivery of HLS and DASH content for both live and on-demand streaming either direct from origin, or through the CDN. New features include support for better Azure Monitor integration and charting.
Live event channels Channels are responsible for processing live streaming content. A Channel provides an input endpoint (ingest URL) that you then provide to a live transcoder. The channel receives live input streams from the live transcoder and makes it available for streaming through one or more streaming endpoints. Channels also provide a preview endpoint (preview URL) that you use to preview and validate your stream before further processing and delivery. Live Events replace Channels from the v2 API. They carry over most features, and have more new features like live transcriptions, stand-by mode, and support for RTMPS ingest.
Live event programs A Program enables you to control the publishing and storage of segments in a live stream. Channels manage Programs. The Channel and Program relationship is similar to traditional media where a channel has a constant stream of content and a program is scoped to some timed event on that channel. You can specify the number of hours you want to keep the recorded content for the program by setting the ArchiveWindowLength property. This value can be set from a minimum of 5 minutes to a maximum of 25 hours. Live Outputs now replace Programs in the v3 API.
Live event length You can stream Live Events 24/7 when using Media Services for transcoding a single bitrate contribution feed into an output stream that has multiple bitrates.
Live event latency New low latency live streaming support on live events.
Live Event Preview Live Event Preview supports Dynamic Packaging and Dynamic Encryption. This enables content protection on Preview as well as DASH and HLS packaging.
Live event RTMPS Improved RTMPS support with increased stability and more source encoder support.
Live event RTMPS secure ingest When you create a live event, you get 4 ingest URLs. The 4 ingest URLs are almost identical, have the same streaming token AppId, only the port number part is different. Two of the URLs are primary and backup for RTMPS.
Live event transcription Azure Media Service delivers video, audio, and text in different protocols. When you publish your live stream using MPEG-DASH or HLS/CMAF, then along with video and audio, our service delivers the transcribed text in IMSC1.1 compatible TTML.
Live event standby mode There was no standby mode for V2. Stand-by mode is a new v3 feature that helps manage hot pools of Live Events. Customers can now start a Live Event in stand-by mode at lower cost before transitioning it to the running state. This improves channel start times and reduces costs of operating hot pools for faster start ups.
Live event billing Live events billing is based on Live Channel meters.
Live outputs Programs had to be started after creation. Live Outputs start on creation and stop when deleted.

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