📦 Code: github.com/USER/video-api-bakeoff — replace before publishing. TL;DR Same source file, same network, same code. I built a tiny Node + React rig that uploads a test video to five managed video APIs (Mux, Cloudflare Stream, api.video, FastPix, AWS), waits for ready, and logs upload time, time-to-ready, and time-to-first-frame. The result isn't a single winner — it's a decision tree. What we're building A repeatable test harness, end-to-end: A Node script that uploads tearsofsteel.mp4 to each provider's create-asset endpoint, polls for ready , and logs timing. A small React page that loads the resulting HLS manifest in HLS.js and measures time-to-first-frame from the browser. A results.csv you can run yourself and disagree with me from. You'll want Node 22, FFmpeg 7.0+ for the source generation, and an account on each provider. Yes, that's five signups. They're all self-serve and most have free credits, so it's an afternoon. 1.…