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Is there a consensus on whether av1 will become a mainstream codec with broad adoption? As far as I know Apple still doesn't provide hardware acceleration, nvid

by cm2187 3y ago

Is there a consensus on whether av1 will become a mainstream codec with broad adoption? As far as I know Apple still doesn't provide hardware acceleration, nvidia only just started (and I don't find their encoding to add much to hevc in term of quality vs file size).

supertrope 3y ago
YouTube uses it on the most popular videos (tens of thousands of views). The rest of the massive video library is still vp9 because av1 takes much more CPU time/FPGA/ASIC resources. Netflix uses it as their relatively small catalog means they are insensitive to av1’s slow encoding. There isn’t a public list but they are sending av1 streams to select TVs, phones, and streaming sticks. Broadcasters only upgrade after an act of Congress so they use MPEG-2. The whole ecosystem of cameras, editing tools, broadcast hardware, and consumer boxes means strong path dependence. HEVC is used on UHD Blu-ray Discs and ATSC 3.0 broadcasts. The very latest phones have hardware decoding. Google Pixel 6. Samsung Galaxy S23. Apple iPhone does not. There’s a chicken and egg problem. Chip area for av1 decoding can’t be justified without demand, but use of av1 remains low without widespread hardware support. Mobile battery constraints mean software decoding is a no go. If the SoC maker adds av1 but it’s not used it has a slight negative impact on battery life due to leakage power increasing going up with chip size (despite gating) Intel 11th gen graphics supports hardware decoding. Nvidia 3060 series has it. AMD Radeon since the RX6000 series has it. Intel Arc was the first to support hardware encoding. Nvidia 4000 series and AMD Radeon RX7000 followed (only in OBS).
8K832d7tNmiQ 3y ago
I'd expect for AV1 decode support announcement for their next iphone.
bjoli 3y ago
HEVC Vs AV1 means very little for the consumer of the video, but the producer will save a lot of money. HEVC will probably have features that will make sure it stays in use, but most people expect av1 to be the next h264 in terms of ubiquity.

by cm2187 3y ago

supertrope 3y ago

YouTube uses it on the most popular videos (tens of thousands of views). The rest of the massive video library is still vp9 because av1 takes much more CPU time/FPGA/ASIC resources. Netflix uses it as their relatively small catalog means they are insensitive to av1’s slow encoding. There isn’t a public list but they are sending av1 streams to select TVs, phones, and streaming sticks. Broadcasters only upgrade after an act of Congress so they use MPEG-2. The whole ecosystem of cameras, editing tools, broadcast hardware, and consumer boxes means strong path dependence. HEVC is used on UHD Blu-ray Discs and ATSC 3.0 broadcasts. The very latest phones have hardware decoding. Google Pixel 6. Samsung Galaxy S23. Apple iPhone does not. There’s a chicken and egg problem. Chip area for av1 decoding can’t be justified without demand, but use of av1 remains low without widespread hardware support. Mobile battery constraints mean software decoding is a no go. If the SoC maker adds av1 but it’s not used it has a slight negative impact on battery life due to leakage power increasing going up with chip size (despite gating) Intel 11th gen graphics supports hardware decoding. Nvidia 3060 series has it. AMD Radeon since the RX6000 series has it. Intel Arc was the first to support hardware encoding. Nvidia 4000 series and AMD Radeon RX7000 followed (only in OBS).

8K832d7tNmiQ 3y ago

I'd expect for AV1 decode support announcement for their next iphone.

bjoli 3y ago

HEVC Vs AV1 means very little for the consumer of the video, but the producer will save a lot of money. HEVC will probably have features that will make sure it stays in use, but most people expect av1 to be the next h264 in terms of ubiquity.