Complexity adaptive rate control

A system comprising:

• a memory;
• a processing device operatively coupled to the memory, the processing device to:
• access a media item comprising a first chunk and a second chunk;
• determine an average bit rate of the first chunk based on a storage size of the first chunk and a playback time of the first chunk;
• determine, by a complexity measurement module, a first media complexity measure for the first chunk and a second media complexity measure for the second chunk, wherein the first media complexity measure is determined using a mathematical formula that is based on the average bit rate of the first chunk and is determined without performing an analysis of image pixel values of one or more frames of the first chunk;
• select a single pass encoder and a multiple pass encoder from a plurality of encoders, wherein the single pass encoder is selected based on the first media complexity measure of the first chunk and the multiple pass encoder is selected based on the second media complexity measure of the second chunk;
• and
• encode the first chunk of the media item using the single pass encoder and encoding the second chunk of the media item using the multiple pass encoder.

A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed, cause a processing device to perform operations comprising:

• accessing a media item comprising a first chunk and a second chunk;
• determine an average bit rate of the first chunk based on a storage size of the first chunk and a playback time of the first chunk;
• determining a first media complexity measure for the first chunk and a second media complexity measure for the second chunk, wherein the first media complexity measure is determined using a mathematical formula that is based on the average bit rate of the first chunk and is determined without performing an analysis of image pixel values of one or more frames of the first chunk;
• selecting, by the processing device, a single pass encoder and a multiple pass encoder from a plurality of encoders, wherein the single pass encoder is selected based on the first media complexity measure of the first chunk and the multiple pass encoder is selected based on the second media complexity measure of the second chunk;
• and
• encoding the first chunk of the media item using the single pass encoder and encoding the second chunk of the media item using the multiple pass encoder.