GateTrue

What each generator documents about marking its output

Transcode: a format change, and a new container

A transcode converts a file to a different codec or container. Where a re-encode may preserve a structure, a transcode replaces it, so anything attached to the old container has to be deliberately migrated. As of 2026-09-22.

Where each layer stands after a format changeA transcode maps a file into a different way of organising one, so a block with no equivalent in the target format has nowhere to go. The picture is carried by every format, which is why anything in the picture arrives wherever the video arrives.A deliveredfileCarrying apicture, andpossibly anattachedrecord.An editorexportsA controlledstepA settingexists andsomebody can betold to use it.UploadAn uncontrolledstepThe destinationstandardises onits own format.After the checkWhat arrivesThe picture,certainly. Theattachedrecord,unverifiably.Which steps a publisher can influenceNo vendor page in this register says anything about what happens after upload.
Fig. 1 A destination transcodes after upload, which is past the point where anybody involved can check the result.
How this register uses the term, and what it excludes. Written 2026-09-22.
The termTranscode
What it namesConverting a file to a different codec or container format
What it is notRe-compressing into the same format, which may preserve structure
Where the register uses itReasoning about what a delivered file still carries

Inclusion rule. Words this site uses in a narrow sense, where the ordinary sense would lead a reader to misread a cell. No vendor statement appears on this page. Order. Fixed order: what the word names, what it excludes, then where it is used here.

1Why the distinction from a re-encode is worth keeping

A re-encode into the same format can sometimes carry structures forward, because the tool has somewhere obvious to put them. A transcode has to map between two different ways of organising a file, and a block with no equivalent in the target format has nowhere to go.

So a transcode is the stronger version of the same risk. Any workflow that involves delivering to a platform includes at least one, because platforms standardise on their own formats regardless of what was uploaded.

2What a publisher can and cannot control

An export from an editing tool is controllable: a setting exists, somebody can be told to use it. A transcode performed by a destination after upload is not, and it happens after the point at which anybody involved can check the result.

That asymmetry is why the register's file-contents column is less useful than it looks for reasoning about published video. A manifest that survives an editor may not survive the platform, and no vendor page in this register addresses the second step at all.

3The layer that does not care

A burned-in mark is indifferent to format. It is part of the picture, and every format carries a picture, so it arrives wherever the video arrives. That indifference is why regulators and publishers treat visible marking as the layer that actually reaches an audience.

An in-picture invisible signal is designed for the same indifference, and its publisher's own pages name compression among the transformations it should survive. The register records the claim and runs no files to test it.

Nothing on this page is a vendor statement; the values it helps read are on the support table, with the page and the date each one was read from. See also the machine-readable column, what survives an export. Nearby terms: metadata strip, container, crop.