What hard-encoded 4K and HD actually look like on Long Play
Whenever we touch Long Play's encoding pipeline - a new rendition, a quality fix, a bug - we need real footage to test it against. Instead of keeping that testing hidden, we've put the actual test library up publicly: Quality Demos.
To be clear about what these are: this isn't a curated showcase reel. Every clip in that collection has been hard-encoded through Long Play's real production pipeline - the same encoder, the same renditions, the same HLS delivery every other video on the platform gets - so what you're watching is exactly what the platform actually does to a real source file, not a cherry-picked demo.
What's in the library
Orion Recovery Operations Aboard the USS Portland (4K) Real NASA footage: an MH-60S helicopter clearing the flight deck of the USS Portland so a V-22 Osprey can bring media aboard to document Orion capsule recovery operations. Shot 11 December 2022.
UAS aerial imagery, URT-6 and URT-7 (4K) Navy divers recovering a mock Orion capsule in the Pacific, filmed by unmanned aircraft. This one picked up second place in NASA's 2018 Videographer of the Year awards (Documentation category), for Michael Downs, Jamie Peer, and Isaac Hutson.
Tears of Steel (4K) The Blender Foundation's 2012 sci-fi short - shot on a Sony F65, shown here in its 4K re-rendered and re-graded version. Scientists and warriors fighting to undo one moment in a ruined future Amsterdam.
Big Buck Bunny (4K, 60fps) The Blender Foundation's classic open movie, in the "Sunflower" 4K 60fps re-render - still one of the most widely used reference clips in video engineering, for good reason.
Under the sea... / Sunset with music (HD) Two short clips we use for quicker HD-only encoding checks.
Why publish test footage at all?
Because "trust us, it encodes well" isn't worth much on its own. If you want to see what Long Play actually does to a real 4K source, this is it - open any of them in fullscreen, flip between resolutions, and judge for yourself.
We've also put Tears of Steel front and centre on the home page for exactly that reason. It's a genuinely hard clip to encode well - fast motion, fine detail, a wide dynamic range - and it holds up. This is what Long Play can do.