Described herein are techniques and mechanisms for optimizing video clarity. According to various embodiments, a plurality of requests from client devices to access a media content item for playback at the client devices may be received at a server. Each of the client devices may have associated therewith device characteristic information that describes one or more characteristics of the client device. A device characteristic that describes a portion of the client devices may be identified. The portion of the client devices may meet a threshold value for creating a media content encoding item. A media content source item corresponding to the requested media content item may be transcoded to create a media content encoding item. The media content encoding item may be encoded to match the identified device characteristic.