When you soar right into a video on YouTube or Netflix, so much occurs in a short time behind the scenes. Video knowledge is quickly downloaded to your gadget, which then has to unpack and normalize that info right into a easy, hiccup-free stream. The technique of encoding and decoding video knowledge has modified significantly over time, with H.264 (AVC) and its successor H.265 (HEVC) remaining two of probably the most broadly used codecs for streaming.
But in 2015, tech giants together with Netflix, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta banded collectively to develop video compression’s newest evolution: AV1. The firms, that are a part of the overarching Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), say the video codec is round 30 p.c extra environment friendly in comparison with different requirements like HEVC and the Google-developed VP9, permitting it to ship higher-quality video at a decrease bandwidth. AOMedia additionally claims that it’s royalty-free, which means streaming gadget makers and video suppliers shouldn’t need to pay patent holders for utilizing the expertise.
That all ought to have been sufficient for AV1 to take over the video panorama. But even with all these enhancements and the backing of a few of the greatest names in tech, the codec hasn’t turn out to be ubiquitous. Many main names in streaming, together with Max, Peacock, and Paramount Plus, nonetheless haven’t adopted AV1.
Since AV1’s debut in 2018, we’ve seen massive gamers hop on board and use the codec for streaming high-resolution content material in 4K and 8K. Google started testing AV1 on YouTube in 2018, whereas Netflix added help for AV1 in 2021. Amazon Prime Video additionally adopted AV1 in 2021, and the codec is utilized in Instagram Reels in addition to for screensharing in Microsoft Teams. Discord launched help in 2023, and Twitch is engaged on its implementation. Browsers like Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox have adopted AV1, too.
A flurry of gadgets have adopted AV1 decoders, together with TVs, telephones, and streaming gadgets
As for everybody else, there are just a few explanation why they could not have adopted AV1 but, and a easy one is {hardware}. For AV1 to work correctly, a tool has to have the {hardware} to help it — or in any other case run doubtlessly resource-intensive software program that may deal with decoding AV1 content material as a substitute.
Within the previous 5 years or so, a flurry of gadgets have adopted AV1 decoders, together with TVs, telephones, and streaming gadgets like the newest Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max. Chip makers like Nvidia, AMD, and Intel have launched GPUs with the tech. Meanwhile, Apple constructed an AV1 decoder into its iPhone with the launch of the iPhone 15 Pro in 2023, and it later added AV1 help throughout the whole iPhone 16 lineup final yr. But not each gadget maker has been eager to undertake the AV1 codec, as Roku accused Google of coercing the corporate into supporting the usual in 2021, claiming it could drive up prices to shoppers.
“In order to get its finest options, it’s a must to settle for a a lot increased encoding complexity,” Larry Pearlstein, an affiliate professor {of electrical} and pc engineering on the College of New Jersey, tells The Verge. “But there’s additionally increased decoding complexity, and that’s on the patron finish.”
There are options for gadgets that don’t have a devoted AV1 {hardware} decoder, however they’re simply not as environment friendly. Google, for example, lets Android app builders allow dav1d, an AV1 decoder developed by VideoLAN. YouTube is simply one of many apps that use dav1d, which permits it to beam AV1 movies to customers on older or mid-range telephones. However, some customers on YouTube have reported points with telephone battery life following the implementation.
Right now, AOMedia says round 95 p.c of Netflix’s content material is encoded with AV1, versus 50 p.c of movies on YouTube. “It’s all the time going to be the hen and egg, proper?” Hari Kalva, chair and professor of Florida Atlantic University’s division {of electrical} engineering and pc science, tells The Verge. “Who ought to construct this expertise earlier than the [AV1] content material exists, versus have they got sufficient gamers to play this content material?”
Other requirements have emerged within the video compression house, too. VVC, also referred to as H.266, was developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and the Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) — the identical teams behind HEVC and AVC. It was finalized in 2020 and is meant to compress video utilizing 50 p.c much less knowledge in comparison with HEVC, a bit greater than AV1’s promise of 30 p.c effectivity financial savings. But, not like AV1, VVC isn’t royalty-free.
Even with extra environment friendly video compression, AV1 comes with some tradeoffs that would hamper adoption. For one, compressing movies utilizing AV1 takes extra time and vitality. “In order to get that increased compression, it’s a must to spend extra time getting there,” Pierre-Anthony Lemieux, the manager director of AOMedia, stated throughout an interview with The Verge. “As codecs get extra environment friendly, they require extra energy.”
Though Lemieux informed The Verge that AV1 implementers have agreed to not cost for the usage of the codec, the group’s royalty-free declare may not be as clear-cut because it’s offered. For years, the businesses that implement video compression codecs have needed to pay a charge to make use of the requirements, sometimes by way of patent swimming pools. Patent swimming pools permit firms to license a bunch of patents for a sure expertise abruptly, quite than having to barter with particular person patent holders. Companies just like the Via Licensing Alliance, Access Advance, and Sisvel handle entry to patent swimming pools for applied sciences like HEVC and VVC.
“Video compression, specifically, is an space that has had many, many sensible folks engaged on it for a very long time,” Robert Moore, an lawyer specializing in mental property at Volpe Koenig, informed The Verge. “The improvements that these folks have created are what I’d name an IP thicket — mainly a really, very difficult atmosphere for anybody to develop expertise that could be a commonplace that’s commercially viable.”
“Our members are engaged on the subsequent massive factor.”
Some swimming pools have since emerged and are claiming royalties on patents utilized by AV1, as outlined by Streaming Media, with the newest forming in January 2025. AO Media responded to the information of the primary licensing program in 2019, saying it was “based to go away behind to go away behind the very atmosphere that the announcement endorses and had settled “patent licensing phrases up entrance.”
The European Union additionally opened up an investigation into AOMedia’s licensing coverage in 2022 over issues that its “obligatory royalty-free cross licensing” settlement might stifle innovation, because it might have an effect on “innovators that weren’t part of AOM on the time of the creation of the AV1 technical, however whose patents are deemed important to (its) technical specs,” based on Reuters. The Commission closed its investigation in 2023 for “precedence causes.”
That uncertainty nonetheless isn’t stopping AOMedia and its adopters from plowing forward with AV1 as the way forward for on-line streaming — and dealing on its potential successor. “AV1 goes to be right here for ceaselessly, most likely,” Lemieux informed The Verge. “But after all, our members are engaged on the subsequent massive factor, and I count on one thing later this yr.”
