Best Practices
Guidelines for optimal performance
While the Encord platform is able to handle large volumes of data, we strongly recommend working within the following limits to ensure smooth operations and limit loading times.
Get Help (AI Help Widget)
While delving into the Encord platform, you might have questions about how to use specific features or use cases that are of interest. Encord provides an AI Help widget that can help you with those needs.
You can close the AI Help widget at anytime if you feel it is in your way.
To access the widget again after closing, click the Help button and toggle the switch for the AI Help widget.
Import into Encord
The following recommendations apply to the Encord platform and the SDK.
Encord enforces the following upload limits for each JSON file used for file uploads:
- Up to 1 million URLs
- A maximum of 500,000 items (e.g. images, image groups, videos, DICOMs)
- URLs can be up to 16 KB in size
Optimal upload chunking can vary depending on your data type and the amount of associated metadata. For tailored recommendations, contact Encord support. We recommend starting with smaller uploads and gradually increasing the size based on how quickly jobs are processed. Generally, smaller chunks result in faster data reflection within the platform.
Before importing your data think about how you want to search for and filter your data. Custom metadata can always be added to your data after your initial data import, but starting with a strong foundation of custom metadata (by importing it with your data) can significantly decrease the time to ROI and achieving your goals.
| Limit | Enterprise | Team | Free |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum # of data units at one time | 10,000 | 2,500 | 1000 |
| Maximum image/video/DICOM file size | 1 GB | 1 GB | 25 MB |
| Maximum JSON file size | 100 MB or 10,000 entries | 100 MB or 2500 entries | 10 MB |
| Label row / Annotation task limit | 50 MB | 50 MB | 10 MB |
| Model predictions import limit | 50 MB | 50 MB | 10 MB |
| Maximum resolution | 4K (3840 x 2160 px) | 4K (3840 x 2160 px) | 4K (3840 x 2160 px) |
| Number of frames per video | 200,000 (2hrs at 30fps) | 200,000 (2hrs at 30fps) | 200,000 (2hrs at 30fps) |
Active supports analysis (Advanced Metrics and Embeddings) on images and videos up to 4K resolution. Performance is affected for images and videos over 4K.
For optimal performance, we strongly recommend downscaling images and videos over 4K to 4K resolution.
When a Project is too large, the files in the attached Dataset(s) must be resized.
Annotate Projects
| Limit | Enterprise | Team | Free |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum number of Projects | Unlimited | Unlimited | 10 |
| Maximum dataset size per Project | 100 GB | 100 GB | 100 GB |
| Maximum number of labels per Project * | 5,000,000 | 1,000,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Maximum number of instances per Workflow Project | 500,000 | 500,000 | 5,000 |
| Maximum number of instances per Manual QA Project | 5,000 | 5,000 | 5,000 |
| Maximum number of tasks per Workflow Project | 500,000 | 500,000 | 1,000 |
* labels = number of instances multiplied the frames they are present in. Labels often accumulate in long videos or large images with many separate objects.
Manual QA Projects are being deprecated. We strongly recommend moving your Projects to Workflow Projects. We provide an SDK script to convert Manual QA Projects into Workflow Projects. Contact support if you need assistance.
Encord Active Projects
| Limit | Enterprise | Team | Free |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum number of data units | 500,000 | 500,000 | 25,000 |
Active supports analysis (Advanced Metrics and Embeddings) on images and videos up to 4K resolution. Performance is affected for images and videos over 4K.
For optimal performance, we strongly recommend downscaling images and videos over 4K to 4K resolution.
Organization
| Limit | Enterprise | Team | Free |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum number of users | Unlimited | Unlimited | 1 |
Access control
Projects in Encord currently support the following roles:
- Annotator: Responsible for completing annotation tasks.
- Reviewer: Responsible for completing review tasks.
- Annotator + Reviewer: Able to complete both annotator and reviewer tasks.
- Team manager: Able to complete both annotator and reviewer tasks and access team management features.
- Admin: Full access to all Project features. In order to successfully attach Ontologies and Datasets to a given Project, a user must have Admin permissions against each target resource.
Learn more about user based access control from here:
Screen size
Encord is not supported on small screens such as tablets. The minimum application window resolution must be 800x600px.
Supported data
Video formats
We support a range of formats and codecs. We recommend using the following video formats:
- .mp4 file with h.265.
- .mp4 with vp9.
- webm
Ensure that videos have a constant frame rate and no audio tracks. The label editor will inform you when we detect audio present in the video files. You can remove audio tracks in videos already in the Encord platform by using the media re-encoding feature in our platform, detailed here.
Other formats and codecs may be supported, but we cannot guarantee compatibility, for more information please see our blog or relevant section in our documentation.
Audio formats
We support a range of formats and codecs. For optimized performance we recommend using the following audio formats:
- .mp3
- .mp4
- .wav
- .m4a
- .flac
- .eac3
Image formats
The platform supports a range of image formats. For most cases we recommend to use:
- .png
- .jpeg
For more information please see the relevant section in our documentation.
Resolution of data / media
The resolution of any videos and images should be limited to 4k pixels (4096x2160px) to avoid issues. If you have other requirements, contact us first and we can help evaluate suitability for specific use-cases.
Keyboard shortcuts
Be sure to check out all the keyboard shortcuts available when using the Label Editor, to help speed up your annotations!
Recommended browser
We recommend the Google Chrome or Brave web-browsers when using Encord. All exceptions are listed in the following table.
| Modality | Recommended browser | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Videos | Chrome | Includes image sequences |
| Images | Chrome | Includes image groups. Excludes TIFF files. |
| DICOM | Firefox | No tab memory limit allows large files to load. However, large files can slow down your computer significantly. |
| Images (TIFF) | Safari | Due to Chromium-based browser limitations, TIFF files can only be viewed in the Label Editor using the Safari browser. More details can be found here. |
This is primarily due to optimizing performance & ensuring data integrity. Modern browsers give no control over deterministically rendering media files (e.g., displaying frames and rendering videos). Further, we also recommend turning off hardware acceleration in Chrome.
Hardware acceleration adds another layer of uncertainty to video rendering in the browser. To eliminate unexpected behavior, we strongly recommend disabling hardware acceleration.
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