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

[btarunr]

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.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[R0H1T]

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

 

[Deleted member 178884]

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

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

 

[btarunr]

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

Pray why?

 

[dorsetknob]

Seems to work on a fresh update on firefox v 62

 

[R0H1T]

Wrong 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]

Does 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.

 

[Deleted member 178884]

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.

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]

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.

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

 

[Deleted member 178884]

Yeah 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

 

[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.

 

[R0H1T]

It'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.

 

[Deleted member 178884]

I'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.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

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.

jebsus, thats an understatement.

 

[R0H1T]

jebsus, 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.

 

[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...

 

[BluesFanUK]

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

 

[ZeDestructor]

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.

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.

 

[Deleted member 178884]

Does 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.

 

[BluesFanUK]

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

Noted... bigger hard drive needed.

 

[Deleted member 178884]

Noted... 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.

 

[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.

 

[BluesFanUK]

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.

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

 

[R0H1T]

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.

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

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