The "Navi 48" silicon powering AMD's next-generation Radeon RX 9070 series could feature AV1 hardware-accelerated encoding with support for AV1 B-Frames. In video compression, a B-frame is an intermediate frame that lacks image information, but has motion-vector and other data from the previous and next image frames (or I-frames), which helps the decoder reconstruct the image component of the frame based on temporal frame data. This is compute-intensive, but greatly reduces file-size or bitrate of the stream, as almost every other frame lacks image information. Support for AV1 B-Frame hardware-accelerated encode was sniffed out by HXL in a recent commit to one of the SDKs AMD maintains in a public repository through its GPUOpen initiative.

AMD's Radeon RX 9000 series generation powered by the RDNA 4 graphics architecture will be based almost entirely on two chips, the "Navi 48" and "Navi 44," with the latter powering mainstream and mid-range SKUs; while the former powers performance-segment ones. There is no enthusiast-segment chip this time around. The "Navi 48" is expected to feature a more advanced video encode/decode hardware than the one RDNA 3.5 comes with; and AV1 is likely to get the bulk of development as the royalty-free codec gains popularity with online video streaming services. It remains to be seen if next-generation architectures like RDNA 4 or NVIDIA's "Blackwell" support acceleration for VVC.

MediaTek today launched the Pentonic 1000, its latest flagship smart TV system-on-chip (SoC) designed for 4K 120 Hz displays. Pentonic 1000 integrates Wi-Fi 6/6E support, MEMC for smoother video, a powerful AI processor, Dolby Vision IQ with Precision Detail, and 8-screen Intelligent View so users can watch or preview multiple streams of content at once. The chipset also supports the most advanced video codecs and global TV broadcast standards in a single platform.

The MediaTek Pentonic 1000 combines a powerful multi-core CPU, dual-core GPU, dedicated AI processing unit (APU) and video decoding engines into a single chip. The chipset provides resolution support up to 4K at 120 Hz and is capable of VRR up to 4K at 144 Hz for gaming applications. In addition to supporting super-fast frame rates for smoother gaming, it provides a lag-free experience with Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM).

MPEG LA, LLC today announced the availability of the VVC Patent Portfolio License. The joint license includes patents that are essential to the Versatile Video Coding (VVC, also known as H.266 and MPEG-I Part 3) standard. VVC provides increased compression with significant bitrate reduction, giving consumers enhanced speed and efficiency in products that encode and decode video for Internet, television and mobile transmission, reception and use.

VVC is capable of delivering 4K to 8K and higher resolution with High-Definition Television (HDTV), Ultra-High-Definition Television (UHD), High Dynamic Range (HDR) and omnidirectional 360° video. The initial patent owners to MPEG LA's VVC License are b<>com; British Broadcasting Corporation; Digital Insights Inc.; FG Innovation Company Limited; Hanwha Techwin Co., Ltd.; Koninklijke KPN N.V.; Nippon Hoso Kyokai; Orange; Siemens Corp.; Tagivan II LLC; and Vidyo, Inc.