Thursday, September 13th 2018

YouTube Begins Beta-testing AV1 CODEC on Beta Web-browsers

Sep 13th, 2018 07:48 Discuss (80 Comments)

YouTube began posting its first test videos that implement the AV1 video CODEC, which aims to significantly reduce video stream bandwidths without sacrificing quality, exceeding the compression standards set by even HEVC. AV1 provides an architecture for both moving and still images, and Google, which is partly funding its development, foresees a future in which it replaces entrenched standards such as JPEG and H.264. Besides better compression, its key USP is its royalty-free license, which could translate to tangible operating-cost savings for YouTube and other video streaming services.

YouTube developers posted this playlist with a selection of videos that are encoded in AV1. You may not notice a reduction in your data consumption just yet, because the first batch of videos have been encoded at a very high bitrate to test performance. Future playlists (which will pop up on YouTube Developers channel), could test the CODEC's other more important aspects, such as data savings. To watch them, and test YouTube's AV1 player for them, you'll either need Chrome 70 beta or the latest nightly-build of Firefox (64.0a1), which pack AV1 support.

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80 Comments on YouTube Begins Beta-testing AV1 CODEC on Beta Web-browsers

R0H1T

One of the (many) reasons why you can skip Turing.

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R0H1TOne of the (many) reasons why you can skip Turing.

Wrong thread? This isn't about raytracing or graphics cards?

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

R0H1TOne of the (many) reasons why you can skip Turing.

Pray why?

dorsetknob

"YOUR RMA REQUEST IS CON-REFUSED"

Seems to work on a fresh update on firefox v 62

R0H1T

Xx Tek Tip xXWrong thread? This isn't about raytracing or graphics cards?

Why wrong thread, if you're a MM buff & don't particularly like HEVC, AV1 is for you. I'd wait for hardware accelerated encode/decode options though & which is why Turing's definitely not for me.

las

Does this require hardware support to run without crazy CPU utilization?

HEVC all over again?

R0H1T

lasDoes this require hardware support to run without crazy CPU utilization?

HEVC all over again?

Nope, try it yourself ~ atm is seems much better than early HEVC.

Unregistered

R0H1TWhy wrong thread, if you're a MM buff & don't particularly like HEVC, AV1 is for you. I'd wait for hardware accelerated encode/decode options though & which is why Turing's definitely not for me.

Well enjoy the wait. They can't just make a hardware accelerated encode decode solution and pop it into every YouTube video in existence that easily.

R0H1T

Xx Tek Tip xXWell enjoy the wait. They can't just make a hardware accelerated encode decode solution and pop it into every YouTube video in existence that easily.

Yeah it's not like anyone's missing anything uber revolutionary, are they?

#10

Unregistered

R0H1TYeah it's not like anyone's missing anything uber revolutionary, are they?

It'll come eventually but the way your going on is like your expecting it to just pop into every video in existence

#11

DeathtoGnomes

if it means the "auto" setting will stream at higher (1080p+) bitrates at the same bandwidth as the potato (sub 720p), im all for it.

#12

R0H1T

Xx Tek Tip xXIt'll come eventually but the way your going on is like your expecting it to just pop into every video in existence

Where did you get that impression? I'd prefer AV1 as the "free" alternative to HEVC, which it has to be said was a major failure coming on the heels of h.264 in part due to the steep royalties. It's development was also spotty & shoddy, in parts.

#13

Unregistered

R0H1TI'd wait for hardware accelerated encode/decode options though

That's where I had the impression, even if you wait for them to come out it'll be years before it's even standardised I mean av1 is only in beta testing meaning it's still a while off.

#14

DeathtoGnomes

R0H1TWhere did you get that impression? I'd prefer AV1 as the "free" alternative to HEVC, which it has to be said was a major failure coming on the heels of h.264 in part due to the steep royalties. It's development was also spotty & shoddy, in parts.

jebsus, thats an understatement.

#15

R0H1T

DeathtoGnomesjebsus, thats an understatement.

Well I'm trying to avoid the obvious implication that HEVC was an unmitigated disaster. There's many reasons for it, but IMO $ was probably the biggest one.

#16

RejZoR

If it won't bog down CPU's because there is no dedicated decoder, then hell no. It was bad enough when everything transitioned to H.264...

#17

BluesFanUK

Does this mean 4K pr0n videos won't be in excess of 6GB+ per video moving forwards?

#18

ZeDestructor

R0H1TWhere did you get that impression? I'd prefer AV1 as the "free" alternative to HEVC, which it has to be said was a major failure coming on the heels of h.264 in part due to the steep royalties. It's development was also spotty & shoddy, in parts.

VP9 is the free (and somewhat inferior) alternative to HEVC. AV1 is the next generation, and hopefully we can get enough adoption fast enough that we can just ram it down MPEG's throats and kill H.whatever and their licensing pools for good.

#19

Unregistered

BluesFanUKDoes this mean 4K pr0n videos won't be in excess of 6GB+ per video moving forwards?

No... this is an encoder meaning it will use less network bandwidth to play videos.

#20

BluesFanUK

Xx Tek Tip xXNo... this is an encoder meaning it will use less network bandwidth to play videos.

Noted... bigger hard drive needed.

#21

Unregistered

BluesFanUKNoted... bigger hard drive needed.

Toshiba x300. That's the only hard drive I recommend right now - I've had 3 seagates fail this year a 2tb one a 1tb one and a 240gb one. My toshiba x300 is performing excellently too.

#22

Tomorrow

I could not get it working in latest Firefox Nightly (updated to todays build just to be sure). Even after manually setting media.av1.enabled to true and restarting all playlist videos were still using VP9.

#23

BluesFanUK

TomorrowI could not get it working in latest Firefox Nightly (updated to todays build just to be sure). Even after manually setting media.av1.enabled to true and restarting all playlist videos were still using VP9.

Same, gave up, probably wouldn't notice the difference anyway.

#24

R0H1T

TomorrowI could not get it working in latest Firefox Nightly (updated to todays build just to be sure). Even after manually setting media.av1.enabled to true and restarting all playlist videos were still using VP9.

There's couple of settings you need to change in about:config & then choose AV1 at youtube.com/testtube :cool:

I chose Always Prefer AV1 & that enabled AV1 at 480p & resolutions above.

#25

ZeDestructor

R0H1TThere's couple of settings you need to change in about:config & then choose AV1 at youtube.com/testtube :cool:

I chose Always Prefer AV1 & that enabled AV1 at 480p & resolutions above.

How's the CPU usage looking?

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YouTube Begins Beta-testing AV1 CODEC on Beta Web-browsers

80 Comments on YouTube Begins Beta-testing AV1 CODEC on Beta Web-browsers

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