Netflix introduces AV1 codec: what is it and how does it work?

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Netflix has made AV1 available on a variety of TVs, as well as the PlayStation 4 Pro. After starting to use the codec on Android smartphones, the sVoD service is now expanding its reach. The AV1 video codec is becoming more widely used, which is excellent news for the industry. It is an open codec that anybody may use, unlike H.264, H.265, and H.266, and it has the endorsement of other significant technological companies.

The Alliance for Open Media (AOM) is a non-profit organization that brings together a lengthy number of industry leaders, including Amazon, Apple, Arm, Cisco, Facebook, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, and Nvidia. The Alliance claims that its approach gives a 30% increase over rival codecs such as H.265 and VP9, based on independent tests. “More screens can display brilliant visuals, richer colors, stronger lighting, and darker shadows,” thanks to AV1. The Alliance has compiled a list of all AV1 technical specifications.

The worrying thing is that only a few Devices are rightful with and capable of decoding AV1 content. Nonetheless, it will appear on some devices in 2020 and 2021, notably Samsung. Another piece of good news is that even if you would not have a Monitor that can decode AV1 films, Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Max also does.

Encoding and decoding are also the 8K of the future. Including its AV1 capability, LG’s OLED ZX series, and the Samsung Q950TS, can deliver 8K streaming. Once 8K streaming is firmly established, it is unavoidable that AV1 will be utilized more frequently.

According to Netflix, employing AV1 reduces quality dropouts during playing by up to 38 percent while improving startup time by 2%. They also decrease artifacts with 10-bit support. Netflix will need to re-encode its entire repertoire so that the global rollout will take some time.

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