Step 1 - Understand the benefits of migrating to Media Services API 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.

Use the latest API

We encourage you to start using version 2020-05-01 (or later) of the Azure Media Services V3 API now to gain the benefits because new features, functionality, and performance optimizations are only available in the current V3 API.

You can change the API version in the portal, latest SDKs, latest CLI, and REST API with the correct version string.

There have been significant improvements to Media Services with V3.

Benefits of Media Services v3

V3 feature	Benefit
Azure portal
Azure portal updates	The Azure portal has been updated to include the management of V3 API entities. It allows customers to use the portal to start live streaming, submit V3 transform jobs, manage content protection policies, streaming endpoints, get API access, manage linked storage accounts, and perform monitoring tasks.
Accounts and Storage
Azure role-based access control (RBAC)	Customers can now define their own roles and control access to each entity in the Media Services ARM API. This helps control access to resources by AAD accounts.
Managed Identities	Managed identities eliminate the need for developers to manage credentials by providing an identity for the Azure resource in Azure AD. See details on managed identities here.
Private endpoint support	Customers will access Media Services endpoints for Key Delivery, LiveEvents, and StreamingEndpoints via a PrivateEndpoint on their VNet.
Customer-manged keys or bring your own key (BYOK) support	Customers can encrypt the data in their Media Services account using a key in their Azure Key Vault.
Assets
An Asset can have multiple streaming locators each with different dynamic packaging and dynamic encryption settings.	There's a limit of 100 streaming locators allowed on each asset. Customers can store a single copy of the media content in the asset, but share different streaming URLs with different streaming policies or content protection policies that are based on a targeted audience.
Job processing
V3 introduces the concept of Transforms for file-based Job processing.	A Transform can be used to build reusable configurations, to create Azure Resource Manager Templates, and isolate processing settings between multiple customers or tenants.
For file-based job processing, you can use a HTTP(S) URL as the input.	You don't need to have content already stored in Azure, nor do you need to create input Assets.
Live events
Premium 1080p Live Events	New Live Event SKU allows customers to get cloud encoding with output up to 1080p in resolution.
New low latency live streaming support on Live Events.	This allows users to watch live events closer to real time than if they didn't have this setting enabled.
Live Event Preview supports dynamic packaging and dynamic encryption.	This enables content protection on preview and DASH and HLS packaging.
Live Outputs replace Programs	Live output is simpler to use than the program entity in the v2 APIs.
RTMP ingest for Live Events is improved, with support for more encoders	Increases stability and provides source encoder flexibility.
Live Events can stream 24x7	You can host a Live Event and keep your audience engaged for longer periods.
Live transcription on Live Events	Live transcription allows customers to automatically transcribe spoken language into text in real time during the live event broadcast. This significantly improves accessibility of live events.
Stand-by mode on Live Events	Live events that are in standby state are less costly than running live events. This allows customers to maintain a set of live events that are ready to start within seconds at a lower cost than maintaining a set of running live events. Reduced pricing for standby live events will become effective in February 2021 for most regions, with the rest to follow in April 2021.
Content protection
Content protection supports multi-key features.	Customers can now use multiple content encryption keys on their Streaming locators.
Monitoring
Azure EventGrid notification support	EventGrid notifications are more feature rich. There are more types of notifications, broader SDK support for receiving the notifications in your own application, and more existing Azure services that can act as event handlers.
Azure Monitor support and integration in the Azure portal	This allows customers to visualize Media Services account quota usage, real-time statistics of streaming endpoints, and ingest and archive statistics for live events. Customers are now able to set alerts and perform necessary actions based on real-time metric data.

Get help and support

You can contact Media Services with questions or follow our updates by one of the following methods:

• Q & A
• Stack Overflow. Tag questions with azure-media-services.
• @MSFTAzureMedia or use @AzureSupport to request support.
• Open a support ticket through the Azure portal.