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While we're making wishlists for Safari, the one I think would have the most real world impact is AV1 support, to have a modern royalty-free codec across all br

While we're making wishlists for Safari, the one I think would have the most real world impact is AV1 support, to have a modern royalty-free codec across all browsers if Safari adds it. Safari is the last holdout. Considering the large proportion of internet usage is to transfer video, the savings in storage and transmission would be non-trivial.

aluminum96 4y ago
Apple is very close with the media entities that receive royalties from MPEG, h.264, etc, so I wouldn't hold your breath.
galad87 4y ago
Until there are enough devices with an av1 hardware decoder, any storage and transmission saving is lost to the higher energy usage and worse battery life for the end user.
- lazyjeff 4y ago
  My phone already has av1 hardware decoding (pixel 6). But anyway it's a chicken/egg problem, where the broader hardware decoding will come once browser support is there. The long-term impacts are more significant. Also, energy use worldwide might decline if fewer datacenters are needed to store/transmit videos. Kind of hard to measure and compare against enduser devices, but it's another factor to consider.
  - galad87 4y ago
    Apple makes both its browser and its hardware, so it's not really a chicken/egg problem for them. But they are a member of Alliance for Open Media, so maybe this WWDC or next they will announce something.
  - ksec 4y ago
    >Also, energy use worldwide might decline if fewer datacenters are needed to store/transmit videos. You dont save on Storage, you are storing an additional copy of video using a different codec.
SemanticStrengh 4y ago
webkit leads the dance for once, with their amazing h265 support
babypuncher 4y ago
I do not expect this to happen until Apple starts including a hardware decoder in their silicon.
eyelidlessness 4y ago
I could have sworn this landed some time ago, so I looked it up. Turns out I was partly right. Partial WebKit support was added in 2020[1], but it depends on which decoder is available. According to metadata on the commit, it looks like this shipped in Safari 15.4. No telling if/when they’ll add hardware support, but they’ve been more receptive to royalty free codecs in recent years then their historical reputation suggests. 1: https://github.com/WebKit/WebKit/commit/db84a4ca534c01144461d312785bbf4878366a53 https://github.com/WebKit/WebKit/commit/db84a4ca534c01144461...
- ksec 4y ago
  Safari media support requires OS update, not the browser or engine.

aluminum96 4y ago

Apple is very close with the media entities that receive royalties from MPEG, h.264, etc, so I wouldn't hold your breath.

galad87 4y ago

Until there are enough devices with an av1 hardware decoder, any storage and transmission saving is lost to the higher energy usage and worse battery life for the end user.

lazyjeff 4y ago
My phone already has av1 hardware decoding (pixel 6). But anyway it's a chicken/egg problem, where the broader hardware decoding will come once browser support is there. The long-term impacts are more significant. Also, energy use worldwide might decline if fewer datacenters are needed to store/transmit videos. Kind of hard to measure and compare against enduser devices, but it's another factor to consider.
- galad87 4y ago
  Apple makes both its browser and its hardware, so it's not really a chicken/egg problem for them. But they are a member of Alliance for Open Media, so maybe this WWDC or next they will announce something.
- ksec 4y ago
  >Also, energy use worldwide might decline if fewer datacenters are needed to store/transmit videos. You dont save on Storage, you are storing an additional copy of video using a different codec.

SemanticStrengh 4y ago

webkit leads the dance for once, with their amazing h265 support

babypuncher 4y ago

I do not expect this to happen until Apple starts including a hardware decoder in their silicon.

eyelidlessness 4y ago

I could have sworn this landed some time ago, so I looked it up. Turns out I was partly right. Partial WebKit support was added in 2020[1], but it depends on which decoder is available. According to metadata on the commit, it looks like this shipped in Safari 15.4. No telling if/when they’ll add hardware support, but they’ve been more receptive to royalty free codecs in recent years then their historical reputation suggests. 1: https://github.com/WebKit/WebKit/commit/db84a4ca534c01144461d312785bbf4878366a53 https://github.com/WebKit/WebKit/commit/db84a4ca534c01144461...

ksec 4y ago
Safari media support requires OS update, not the browser or engine.