RELEASE NOTES

AWS ELEMENTAL SERVER AND CONDUCTOR FILE

VERSION 2.18.0

Release Notes: AWS Elemental Server, version 2.18.0

Rev 1

AWS Elemental

1320 SW Broadway

Portland, Oregon, 97201

+1 503 222 3212

www.elemental.com

AWS Elemental Confidential.

This guide applies to AWS Elemental Server & AWS Elemental Conductor File version 2.18.0

Release Notes AWS Elemental Server, version 2.18.0

Rev 1 AWS Elemental Confidential Page 3

Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 4

Release Notes, 2.18.0 .................................................................................................................................. 6

Essential Notes for AWS Elemental Server 2.18.0 ................................................................................. 6

Release Notes, 2.17.5 .................................................................................................................................. 6

Essential Notes for AWS Elemental Server 2.17.5 ................................................................................. 7

Release Notes, 2.17.4 .................................................................................................................................. 8

Essential Notes for AWS Elemental Server 2.17.4 ................................................................................. 8

Release Notes, 2.17.3 .................................................................................................................................. 9

Essential Notes for AWS Elemental Server 2.17.3 ................................................................................. 9

Release Notes, 2.17.2 ................................................................................................................................ 10

Essential Notes for AWS Elemental Server 2.17.2 ............................................................................... 10

Release Notes, 2.17.1 ................................................................................................................................ 11

Essential Notes for AWS Elemental Server 2.17.1 ............................................................................... 11

Release Notes, 2.17.0 ................................................................................................................................ 12

Essential Notes for AWS Elemental Server 2.17.0 ............................................................................... 12

Product Enhancements in AWS Elemental Server 2.17.0 ................................................................... 12

Other Changes to AWS Elemental Server 2.17.0 ................................................................................. 14

Previously Identified Issues .................................................................................................................. 17

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INTRODUCTION

About AWS Elemental Server

AWS Elemental Server enables fast and reliable video processing for file-based workflows. The

appliance or software-based solution performs simultaneous, faster-than-real-time conversion of media

files into mezzanine deliverables, on-demand assets, and adaptive bitrate outputs optionally with

encryption for primary and multiscreen devices. AWS Elemental Server integrates easily into existing

video workflows and evolves with emerging technologies to create content for premium viewing

experiences while maximizing revenue opportunities.

Software Upgrades

You can find the currently installed version of AWS Elemental Server software at the bottom of the user

interface or by typing the command:

cat /opt/elemental_se/versions.txt

Note that some features may be available only in certain models of AWS Elemental Server.

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Release Notes AWS Elemental Server, version 2.18.0

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RELEASE NOTES, 2.18.0

Essential Notes for AWS Elemental Server 2.18.0

Changed Default Behavior

KARP-13067

Path-based execution restriction for scripts, now only allowed from the following

pre-defined folders: /data or /opt/elemental_se/web/public/script

KARP-14308

Installer now defaults to using https (port 443). User may still optionally specify http

upon installation with --http flag

Note: During the installation process, the installer will disable any network adapters that you choose not to

configure. If you are connected to the host system via SSH using an adapter that you have opted not to configure,

you may experience a loss of connection. Therefore, it is recommended to allow the installer to configure all

network adapters to avoid any disruptions in connectivity.

Other changes in AWS Elemental Server 2.18.0

KARP-5416

Added deprecation warning when DTS Express audio encoder is used

KARP-9440

Addresses issues with NexGuard watermarking

Upcoming Feature Removals

KARP-4758

Starting with version 2.18.1, AWS Elemental Server will no longer support CQ or

ABR rate control modes. Jobs using these values will fail. To prepare for this change,

update profiles and templates to use VBR, QVBR, or CBR rate control mode.

KARP-6949

Starting with version 2.18.1, the DTS Express audio encoder will no longer be

supported in CPU, GPU, VM, and AWS Elemental Cloud Server versions.

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RELEASE NOTES, 2.17.5

Essential Notes for AWS Elemental Server 2.17.5

Fixes in AWS Elemental Server 2.17.5

KARP-12352

Fixed an issue where PTS time of first I-frame for transport streams differed across

renditions from same file output group

KARP-12060

Fixed issue where EME process was terminated for being unresponsive when probing

MP4 files from S3

General

Addressed security-related fixes

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RELEASE NOTES, 2.17.4

Essential Notes for AWS Elemental Server 2.17.4

Fixes in AWS Elemental Server 2.17.4

KARP-12829

Fixed an issue with caption tracks causing unexpected bitrates

KARP-12075

Fixed a frame distortion issue affecting some AVC configurations

KARP-11806

Improved handling of MXF files malformed audio samples

KARP-10178

Improved caption burn-in shearing functionality

General

Addressed security-related fixes

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RELEASE NOTES, 2.17.3

Essential Notes for AWS Elemental Server 2.17.3

Fixes in AWS Elemental Server 2.17.3

KARP-11591

Fixed an issue where jobs fail due to GPU validation error

KARP-11200

Addressed a “No audio frames decoded” error with some fragmented MP4 sources

KARP-11158

Fixed an issue where jobs were redundantly starting across two nodes

KARP-10623

Fixed a communication issue in high-availability conductors with port bonding

KARP-10599

Fixed an issue where jobs submitted via Conductor File remaining in the post-

processing state indefinitely

KARP-10457

Removed Upgrade tab from Conductor File web interface

KARP-10140

Fixed issue with specifying domain when mounting CIF shares

KARP-9572

Fixed issue with installer termination when configuring port bonding

General

Addressed security-related fixes

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RELEASE NOTES, 2.17.2

Essential Notes for AWS Elemental Server 2.17.2

Fixes in AWS Elemental Server 2.17.2

KARP-4118

Fixed an issue parsing aspect ratio metadata when ingesting interlaced AVC-I content

that could lead to an unrecognized format error.

KARP-9304

Updated setup configuration file to allow use of the SMB v3 protocol.

KARP-9326

Fixed an issue where some job configurations that include thumbnail generation

could fail with an “scaler input picture in wrong memory location” error.

KARP-9923

Fixed an issue that could cause jobs to fail due to excessive retry attempts within too

short a period of time.

KARP-10344

Corrected a cosmetic error when displaying some job profiles in the user interface.

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RELEASE NOTES, 2.17.1

Essential Notes for AWS Elemental Server 2.17.1

Fixes in AWS Elemental Server 2.17.1

KARP-9963

Fixed a scenario where a Server node with web authentication enabled could not be

added to a conductor pool via the web UI.

KARP-9743

Fixed vulnerabilities where an attacker could gain root access to a host machine if they

had web access.

KARP-9694

Fixed a vulnerability where an attacker could gain read access to database backups if

they had web access.

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RELEASE NOTES, 2.17.0

Essential Notes for AWS Elemental Server 2.17.0

Changed Default Behavior

KARP-4610

An AUTO mode has been introduced to the Adaptive Quantization control for H.264

and is the new default value for new jobs.

KARP-5091

The RAM verification step to ensure the machine running a DolbyVision job has at

least 64GB of RAM now occurs after the job is submitted. If the machine does not

meet the minimum requirements, an error will be returned through the UI and API and

the job will not be submitted.

KARP-5432

The default value for AU_pic_struct information field will now be set to '01' for top

field interlacing or '10' for bottom field interlacing to adhere to the ETSI TS 101 145

specification. Previously, this value was set to '00' regardless of interlacing type.

KARP-7868

A change has been made to the behavior of jobs with Frame Capture outputs when the

Color corrector preprocessor is enabled. The pixel transformation that occurs in the

color corrector when used with JPEG outputs has been improved to better suit for the

subsequent JPEG encoding. Jobs submitted that generate Frame Capture outputs with

color correction preprocessing will produce JPEG outputs with better color accuracy.

Product Enhancements in AWS Elemental Server

2.17.0

KARP-2936

For jobs with QuickTime or MXF outputs writing to an S3 destination, AWS Elemental

Server will now progressively write QuickTime and MXF outputs to S3.

KARP-3125

AWS Elemental Server now supports AVC-Intra Class 50/100/200 and 4K/2K video with

PCM WAV audio and SMPTE-436 caption in generic OP1a MXF outputs.

KARP-3256

We now support VC3 video codec with Class 145_8bit, 200_8bit and 200_10bit with

PCM WAV audio and SMPTE 436M caption in generic OP1a MXF outputs

KARP-3732

In ABR outputs, when the length of a clip is not an even multiple of the segment duration,

a small final segment is produced. For HLS / Audio-only, DASH, CMAF HLS, and

CMAF DASH outputs, you may now set a minimum final segment length, as floating

point number of seconds.

KARP-4400

Elemental Server now supports the High 422, High 422 10-bit, and High 10-bit AVC

profiles in the MOV and MP4 output containers.

KARP-4548

The speaker labels of the audio channels can now be manually set for Quicktime outputs.

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KARP-4733

AWS Elemental Server has enhanced its ability to seek to an input frame when the

associated audio is not seek-able. This change will significantly speed up workflows with

input clipping that use un-seek-able audio formats such as sidecar WAV.

KARP-5143

AWS Elemental Server now supports the conversion of non-teletext captions like SRT,

TTML, 608/708 and STL to TELETEXT carried in MXF outputs.

KARP-5246

AWS Elemental Server can now accept files with the .mka file extension as an audio-only

or sidecar audio input.

KARP-5287

AWS Elemental Server now supports ingest of .3gp and .3g2 files, as well as AMR-NB

and AMR-WB encoded audio.

KARP-5407

The X/Y positioning and justification of DVBSub and burn-in captions can now be

specified, and can be independently configured for each output within a job.

KARP-5673

Color, style, and positioning of Teletext subtitles can now be passed through to WebVTT,

SRT, and TTML output formats.

KARP-5706

AWS Elemental Server now supports ingest of OGG and OGA containers.

KARP-5708

AWS Elemental Server now supports ingest of Vorbis and Opus audio-only content

carried in the OGG and OGA containers.

KARP-5710

Support has been added for WMA audio files ingested as audio-only or sidecar audio file

inputs.

KARP-5848

The Color Corrector has been enhanced to offer color range legalization from "Sample

Range" to "Limited Range".

KARP-5849

Additional MXF profiles, or shims, have been added to adhere to the XDCAM and D-10

specifications. When creating content of this type, selecting the appropriate MXF profile

will ensure that the file structure and constraints adhere to these industry standards.

KARP-5921

DASH outputs now support DASH-IF-IOP-v4.3 -- 6.4.3.3. This change improves

embedded caption detection and playback across players.

KARP-6380

Audio Selector Groups can now mix source tracks that don't have the same codec or

sampling rate.

KARP-6552

The luminance of burned-in IMSC captions will now be adjusted depending on the luma

gain specified in the metadata of the IMSC xml and the luma gain of the frame region

where the captions appear. This adjustment is as defined by the IMSC specification.

KARP-6553

Subtitles in IMSC format can now be converted to burn-in with color, style, and

positioning retention.

KARP-6991

TTML or TTML-like (e.g. IMSC) caption content using the tts::unicodeBidi tag will be

handled and rendered as bidirectional subtitle outputs.

KARP-7245

CMAF output groups now support user-defined audio rendition groups when configured

to write HLS manifests.

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KARP-7247

AWS Elemental Server now supports the Descriptive Video Service (DVS) flag in HLS

and CMAF outputs. When you enable the DVS flag, Server includes the parameter

CHARACTERISTICS="public.accessibility.describes-video" in the EXT-X-MEDIA

entry for this track. The DVS flag can help with accessibility on Apple devices. For more

information, see the Apple documentation.

KARP-7302

A new 'Scan Type Conversion Mode' option has been added that controls how high frame

rate progressive content is converted to interlaced. When enabled, 60p/50p content

converted to 30i/25i will produce each interlaced field from the matching progressive

frame in the source content. This ensures the smooths possible motion in the interlaced

output video.

KARP-7482

AWS Elemental Server now supports I-frame manifest generation in CMAF output group

jobs that are configured to write HLS manifests.

KARP-7520

AWS Elemental Server now supports Dolby Dynamic Range Compression (DRC) profiles

in AC3 audio.

KARP-7557

AWS Elemental Server has added the ability to specify the caption burn-in font color

using hex values.

KARP-8389

AWS Elemental Server now supports HDR10+. A new pre-processor option will generate

HDR10+ metadata and insert it into an H265 output. Applying the pre-processor requires

that the output codec is using a 10-bit profile, that the incoming color space is HDR10

(this can be generated in the same job as HDR10+ by also using the color pre-processor to

force a non-HDR10 input into an HDR10 color space).

Other Changes to AWS Elemental Server 2.17.0

KARP-1876

When using "/" name modifiers to create subdirectories for CMAF outputs, child HLS

manifests will now be written in the same directory as init segments.

KARP-2373

Fixed an issue that could cause image insertion jobs that use the same S3 source file

more than once to fail insertion.

KARP-4116

Corrupt Dolby Digital audio sources that previously generated a 1999 error when the

frame header failed to decode will now produce a more descriptive 1075 error message.

KARP-4117

Fixed an issue with DVB-SUB DDS display_width and display_height values that

caused output captions to be 1 pixel oversized in both dimensions.

KARP-4144

AWS Elemental Server now correctly handles non-passthrough dropframe timecode for

MXF outputs.

KARP-4160

Fixed an issue affecting variable frame rate inputs that include edit lists or CTTS values

for PTS, which could result in truncated outputs.

KARP-4512

Fixed an issue which may cause MOV inputs with QTRLE encoded video to product

corrupted outputs.

KARP-4644

AWS Elemental Server can now ingest file inputs and external audio inputs from MPEG

Program Streams with the .m2p file extension.

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KARP-4794

Quicktime Apple ProRes outputs now return a 1040 error code when no output

resolution is specified and the input resolution exceeds the maximum ProRes output

resolution.

KARP-4813

Fixed an issue affecting DolbyVision HDR CMAF outputs with Fairplay DRM that

could result in black screen during playback.

KARP-5374

Fixed an issue that could cause incorrect audio sync on audio-only DASH outputs.

KARP-5414

Fixed an issue where the 608 parity bit was set incorrectly when using an SCC source.

KARP-5498

Fixed an issue where SCTE35 packets were incorrectly placed when a job generated

multiple outputs at different frame rates.

KARP-5504

Fixed an issue where the HDR color space metadata was not detected in WebM source

files containing HDR video.

KARP-5583

Fixed an issue that would cause the filename of RAW outputs to be truncated when the

input filename uses multiple period characters that do not designate the file extension.

KARP-5749

Fixed an issue that could cause VFR inputs with edit lists to drop frames in output.

KARP-5917

Burn-in captions will now respect the title safe area.

KARP-5965

AWS Elemental Server will now correctly handle MXF input files which have index

entry array sizes greater than 65535, even when the 2 byte length is used for encoding

length.

KARP-5994

Jobs configured to use the image inserter will no longer fail validation when provided

with audio only source files. These jobs will now progress and ignore the image insertion

as there is no video stream to apply it to.

KARP-6197

Fixed an issue that would cause the automatic bitrate calculation for transport stream

outputs to be incorrect for low-bitrate video streams.

KARP-6467

Improved performance when writing per-frame frame capture outputs to S3.

KARP-6538

Fixed an issue that could cause macroblocking of the first and last video frames in 10-bit

outputs when they are distinctly different to the frames adjacent to them.

KARP-6715

Fixed an issue where 608 or 708 captions could be periodically dropped during

processing with some source files.

KARP-6723

AVC MP4 inputs that have start codes which are not compliant with ISO/IEC 14496-15

will now return a detailed error message on job failure.

KARP-6767

Fixed an issue that could cause truncated output durations with some variable frame rate

source content.

KARP-7002

Fixed an issue parsing embedded timecode from some AVC source files.

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KARP-7079

Fixed an issue that would cause job failures when the output frame rate was set to

'Follow source' and the source file frame rate was carried in a specific way.

KARP-7107

AWS Elemental Server now supports the "windowless" argument for DVB-SUB caption

output insert_dds parameter. When enabled, this will insert DDS metadata into the output

without a display window. Captions can be repositioned on-screen with this setting in

conjunction with dds_origin_x and dds_origin_y.

KARP-7111

AWS Elemental Server will now log API Gateway request IDs.

KARP-7202

Fixed an issue that could cause jobs that ingest Quicktime CC tracks to stall if writing to

embedded or burn-in caption destinations.

KARP-7261

Fixed an issue that could cause jobs with inputs containing PPS with a size greater than

256 to error.

KARP-7284

AWS Elemental Server has improved the tolerance for incomplete mdhd payloads

present in MP4 source files.

KARP-7333

Fixed an issue that would cause jobs that encountered DolbyVision metadata greater than

2048 bytes/frame to fail.

KARP-7440

Fixed an issue that could cause MP4 inputs with Variable Frame Rate (VFR), edit lists

(ELST), and a final video frame of very long duration to hang until canceled by timeout.

KARP-7501

Fixed an issue that would prevent ingest of ProRes content carried in MXF that does not

include color bit depth metadata. These files should now ingest successfully.

KARP-7512

Fixed an issue that could cause jobs with H265 CMAF output when DRM is enabled to

stall and eventually fail.

KARP-7599

Fixed an issue in which frames not in PTS order may cause frame duplication and silence

in outputs.

KARP-7609

Fixed an issue ingesting MXF files with empty SMPTE291 frames in the SMPTE436

track.

KARP-7674

TTML captions that specify both 'end' and 'dur' attributes will no longer be rejected.

KARP-8477

Fixed an issue where some GXF source content would duplicate every 3rd frame during

processing and produce a jittery output.

Release Notes AWS Elemental Server, version 2.18.0

Rev 1 AWS Elemental Confidential Page 17

Newly Identified Issues

Previously Identified Issues

Audio

SOCK-22543

AAC SBR signaling is incorrect in MPEG-2 TS with LATM/LOAS (Low overhead

Audio Transport Mux / Low Overhead Audio Stream) transport. The output is playable,

although the audio quality may not have optimal quality.

KARP-2389

AAC Audio output is cropped by 2 frames and out of sync depending on audio norm and

offset settings.

Captions

KARP-3347

In jobs that have multiple input ancillary caption selectors, some caption channels are

not created in the output.

SOCK-13956

If the minimum I-frame spacing option is used with the CPU AVC (H.264) encoder

then the GOP markers needed for ARIB compatibility won't work. Avoid using Min I-

Frame spacing in ARIB application for the CPU H.264 encoder.

SOCK-17447

SCTE-27 in some instances produces zero-length (or no) captions.

SOCK-20574

There is an issue with AWS Elemental Server running on VM servers with limited

CPU resources. When running two simultaneous jobs that convert DVB-Sub to TTML

captions, and if the inputs have parity errors, the VM node may enter into delayed

shutdown. Workarounds include running one job at a time, providing clean content for

processing, or running the VM on a server with more CPU resources

KARP-3398

If an input has TTML captions and the captions are converted to SMPTE-TT, the

captions may produce empty SMPTE-TT tracks.

SOCK-23150

If an input has DVB Sub captions and the captions are converted to SMPTE-TT, the

captions that span HLS segments have incorrect first time-spans referenced in the

SMPTE-TT.

Conductor

KARP-3403

Uploading .tgz conductor license file through UI causes an error. For more information

regarding a workaround for this issue, see https://community.elemental.com/docs/DOC-

1327

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KARP-11991

Conductor file licenses cannot be uploaded as an archive file (.tgz)

KARP-11999

Database backups to CIFS mounts over an S3 gateway are unsupported.

DRM and Encryption

SOCK-22735

When creating encrypted HLS outputs of an asset, including one output with VOD mode

(Archive), the VOD asset may not play. This is a result of non-VOD outputs using a

sliding key and the VOD asset using a fixed key. Contact AWS Elemental Support for

more details.

General

KARP-3421

Attempting to upgrade a failed worker node via the Conductor File UI does not return

an error. The target node fails to upgrade and the Conductor File UI and logs do not

reflect the failure.

KARP-5580

Deleting a failed mount point from Conductor File with not stop the Conductor

File/Server nodes from constantly attempting to reconnect to it.

KARP-3483

The system may not reconfigure failed worker nodes when the user instructs it to via

the web interface (UI). This can impact AWS Elemental Server worker nodes that are

configured in a cluster controlled by AWS Elemental Conductor File.

HDR

SOCK-23572

If a job using HDR was created on a node running 2.9 software, then when you update to

2.10 or greater you must reconfigure the job. The location of the HDR tags (such as

blue_primary_x) has changed from stream_assembly/video_description/ to

stream_assembly/video_description/h265_settings.

Inputs

SOCK-23571

Reading .png assets from S3 has been observed to take multiple seconds. At the time of

release the root cause of the excess latency has not been identified.

SOCK-23580

URI protocol field for S3 inputs is case sensitive. Example s3://... works, whereas S3://...

fails with a 1010 error.

Log Files

SOCK-23564

Running a large number of small jobs creates a large number of log files. You should

periodically check the log file directory and remove log files for completed tasks.

Release Notes AWS Elemental Server, version 2.18.0

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Motion Graphic Overlay

SOCK-23557

With motion graphic overlay (motion image inserter), PNG images from an S3 bucket

are not being inserted.

SOCK-23567

For .png assets to be used with the motion image inserter, every .png image must have

the same resolution.

Outputs

KARP-3292

ESAM support is intended for TS or Archive (TS) outputs only. ESAM should not be

configured in conjunction with packaged outputs such as HLS.

KARP-3366

The system will fail to properly de-mux some MXF files on slow networks. This failure

does not generate any errors.

Performance

KARP-9282

MPEG-2 encoding on some older hardware configurations may experience a

performance degradation of 10-15% after upgrading to this release.

SCTE-35

SOCK-23482

Avails durations are supported up to a limit of 13 hours. Avoid avail durations longer

than 13 hours as they can cause inaccurate avail state transitions.

KARP-6543

Jobs using M2TS, M3U8, MPD, or CMFC output containers, with ESAM SCTE-35 or

SCTE35 source set may experience job failure on first attempt. Jobs failing due or

retrying due to this race condition will include a warning message in the job log, "W

Transcode is experiencing video and metadata sync race condition" and may be retried

to succeed.

Security

SOCK-22495

SSL fails to enable when running configure script with “--config-auth --https”.

XDS Insertion

SOCK-23204

XDS insertion works for embedded sources, but not for SCC or MXF ancillary inputs.

This issue is known to affect AWS Elemental Server versions 2.8.4, 2.9.x, and 2.10.