souvlakee

I've been building a video transcoding API as a side project and achieved some results that surprised me. Before I spend more time on this, I'd love your honest input.

What I built and here's what it can do:

- 4K → 1080p (H.264): $0.0005 per minute

- 4K → 1080p (H.265): $0.0015 per minute

- 4K → 1080p (AV1): $0.0035 per minute

- HLS adaptive streaming (4 quality levels): $0.0015 per minute

---

For comparison, AWS MediaConvert charges $0.015-0.19/min for similar work. Coconut (claims "most cheapest") and Mux charge $0.015/min.

That's 10-50x cheaper depending on the codec.

My questions:

1. Is there still demand for this in 2026? Big players like Mux, Cloudinary, AWS exist. Do smaller developers/startups actually feel the pain of video processing costs?

2. B2B or B2C? I'm pretty sure consumers just use free tools. But are there indie developers, small SaaS, or agencies who would pay for a cheap API?

3. Would price alone make you switch? If you're already using Mux/Cloudinary/AWS, would 10-50x savings be enough to try something new from an unknown indie developer?

4. What would make you trust a new service? Open-source? Transparent pricing? Case studies? I have no brand, no reputation.

5. Should I even continue? If the market is too commoditized or nobody cares about cost, I'd rather know now.

---

I'm not here to sell anything. No landing page, no waitlist. Just trying to validate if this solves a real problem before I invest more time.