1. Cost Structure: One key difference between AWS Elemental MediaConvert and Amazon Elastic Transcoder is their cost structure. MediaConvert offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model where you only pay for the minutes of video processed, while Elastic Transcoder charges based on the duration of the source file, output duration, and resolution. This means that if you have a shorter video or need higher resolution outputs, Elastic Transcoder may be more cost-effective.
2. Input and Output Format Support: MediaConvert supports a wider range of input and output formats compared to Elastic Transcoder. MediaConvert can handle over 30 input formats, including video, audio, and captions, and output to more than 25 formats. Elastic Transcoder, on the other hand, supports fewer input formats and output formats.
3. Adaptive Bitrate Streaming: MediaConvert supports the creation of adaptive bitrate streaming outputs, which is crucial for delivering videos that adapt to a viewer's internet connection. Elastic Transcoder, on the other hand, does not have native support for adaptive bitrate streaming and requires additional steps to achieve the same functionality.
4. Video Quality and Encoding Settings: MediaConvert provides more control over video quality and encoding settings compared to Elastic Transcoder. With MediaConvert, you can tweak parameters such as bitrate, frame rate, and codec settings to achieve the desired output quality. Elastic Transcoder has limited options for adjusting encoding settings.
5. Content Encryption: MediaConvert offers built-in content encryption options, allowing you to protect your videos with digital rights management (DRM) technologies like Widevine and PlayReady. Elastic Transcoder does not have native support for content encryption and requires additional steps or integrations to achieve the same level of security.
6. Scalability and Speed: MediaConvert is designed to handle high throughput and can scale automatically based on demand. It utilizes AWS's infrastructure to quickly process videos at scale. Elastic Transcoder is also scalable but may not be able to handle extremely high loads as efficiently as MediaConvert.

In Summary, AWS Elemental MediaConvert offers a more flexible cost structure, broader format support, better control over video quality, adaptive bitrate streaming, content encryption, and higher scalability compared to Amazon Elastic Transcoder.