Thursday, September 13th 2018
YouTube Begins Beta-testing AV1 CODEC on Beta Web-browsers
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.
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.
80 Comments on YouTube Begins Beta-testing AV1 CODEC on Beta Web-browsers
2. On YouTube (and others, presumably), non-live content uses a hybrid CRF + CBR approach, where there is a bitrate maximum, but the encoder is allowed to go lower if the quality requirements are met.
The real problem is that the quality standard by streaming sites are low right now, a function of most of the world (particularly NA) having shit internet infrastructure. Once most people have 100+mbit internet to their homes and their phones, the quality will go up, silently (as it has for 720p, from 1mbit/s during the original launch to 2-2.5mbit/s now on YouTube)