Buyers' Guide to VOD Encoders This video-on-demand buyers' guide is meant to walk newbies through what an encoder is and how to choose one, rather than help a serious buyer choose a vendor or approach in any of the categories covered. If you're new to the market, you'll learn a bit about who's who and what's what; if you've been in the streaming business for a while, you'll probably not get a lot out of this. As always, the group of companies mentioned is representative rather than exhaustive. Let's start with some datapoints, courtesy of Bitmovin's 2020 Video Developer Report, which incorporates responses from 792 participants located in more than 80 countries.