AV1 Open Video Codec Now Powers 30% of Netflix Streaming (tvtechnology.com)
- Reference: 0180290521
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/12/05/0146253/av1-open-video-codec-now-powers-30-of-netflix-streaming
- Source link: https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/av1-open-video-codec-now-powers-30-percent-of-netflix-streaming
> The [2]blog by Liwei Guo, Zhi Li, Sheldon Radford and Jeff Watts comes at a time when AV2 is on the horizon. [...] The blog revisits Netflix's AV1 journey to date, highlights emerging use cases, and shares adoption trends across the device ecosystem. It noted that since entering the streaming business in 2007, Netflix has primarily relied on H.264/AVC as its streaming format.
"Looking ahead, we are excited about the forthcoming release of AV2, announced by the Alliance for Open Media for the end of 2025," said the authors. "AV2 is poised to set a new benchmark for compression efficiency and streaming capabilities, building on the solid foundation laid by AV1. At Netflix, we remain committed to adopting the best open technologies to delight our members around the globe. While AV2 represents the future of streaming, AV1 is very much the present -- serving as the backbone of our platform and powering exceptional entertainment experiences across a vast and ever-expanding ecosystem of devices."
[1] https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/av1-open-video-codec-now-powers-30-percent-of-netflix-streaming
[2] https://netflixtechblog.medium.com/av1-now-powering-30-of-netflix-streaming-02f592242d80
Good place to ask for advice then (Score:2)
I'm on an aging 'Chromecast with GoogleTV' that has no AV1 HW support.
Can people give me some suggestions on a good replacement that supports AV1 on 4K, hopefully with Netflix support. And is there anything to buy that is a little futureproof or should I just get a generic NUC?
For those with generic NUCs, what do you suggest for a settop box experience? Some specialized distro of Linux or a x86 Android install or something?
Re: Good place to ask for advice then (Score:3)
IIRC, a chromecast with google tv support, while ancient, is new enough that AV1 support is there, via software decoding using the rendering pipeline of the GPU.
Meanwhile, my chromecasts 1st and 2nd gen are stuck in H.264 land.
You will probably need to update to the latest firmware. Even allow the beta firmwares while updating, and then revert to "normal" channel.
Best of luck.
Re: (Score:2)
4k is a bit of a stretch for software decoding.
I just want video patents to go away (Score:3)
Every few years they make a "new" codec that expands the video patent landscape for another 20 years, even MPEG-2 has a patent still active in Malaysia, leaving MPEG-1 as the last codec if you want a truly free video system. The recent stories of laptops having their decoders removed because of patent frees are infuriating.
Re: (Score:2)
Not regardless of any size. An old XDCAM will produce MPEG-2 streams that look better than anything streaming from Amazon Video.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah. But you can't get that blown out, over saturated, cartoon look that every director and vidya-game creator is after.
Re: (Score:2)
> The recent stories of laptops having their decoders removed because of patent frees are infuriating.
Maybe you're referring to this story:
[1]https://arstechnica.com/gadget... [arstechnica.com]
It says:
Per a breakdown from patent pool administration VIA Licensing Alliance, royalty rates for HEVC for over 100,001 units are increasing from $0.20 each to $0.24 each in the United States ... "This is pretty ridiculous, given these systems are $800+ a machine, are part of a 'Pro' line (jabs at branding names are warranted รข" HEVC i
[1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/11/hp-and-dell-disable-hevc-support-built-into-their-laptops-cpus/
Re: (Score:3)
AV1 was initiated with the intent of being royalty-free and patent-unencumbered by the Alliance for Open Media. AOM has a defense fund which can be (and has been) used to defend against threats of patent enforcement, or even anti-trust charges as brought by the EU against the standard. It is royalty free, and there are a number of vendors that make drop-in hardware accelerators for various cpu and gpu architectures.
That's nice. (Score:2)
I still pirated Stranger Things though, despite being a paying customer, because anyone watching Netflix on a PC still can't get 4K or HDR.
AV1 lacks hardware support compared with H.264 (Score:5, Insightful)
For most devices, especially older ones, AV1 support comes courtesy of Software support using the rendering Pipeline inside whatever GPU is in the device.
Netflix has been very involved in these efforts in many a hardware platform/ecosystem.
Meanwhile, H.264 has dedicated hardware decoders in world+dog devices, including ancient ones.
But either h.264 or AV1 is great compared to the clusterFSCK that is H.265, especially the licensing part, where many companies are elimination H.265 support, either retroactively like Synology:
[1]https://nascompares.com/2024/0... [nascompares.com]
Or on a going forward basis like Dell and HP-ink:
[2]https://hardware.slashdot.org/... [slashdot.org]
So, for me, wider adoption of AV1 is a ggreat development, warts and all....
[1] https://nascompares.com/2024/08/27/synology-dsm-7-2-2-and-killing-off-video-station-hevc-support-server-side/
[2] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/11/21/0616243/hp-and-dell-disable-hevc-support-built-into-their-laptops-cpus
Re: (Score:2)
That's why it's 30%. As more devices support AV1, the number will rise.