What is AV1?
AV1 (AOMedia Video 1) is a royalty-free video codec developed by the Alliance for Open Media. It represents the cutting edge of video compression technology, offering significant improvements over previous standards.
Key Benefits of AV1
- 30-50% better compression than H.264
- 20% better than HEVC/H.265
- Completely royalty-free
- Supported by all major tech companies
- Growing hardware acceleration support
The Alliance for Open Media
AV1 was developed by the Alliance for Open Media, a consortium of major tech companies including:
- Google, Mozilla, Microsoft
- Apple, Amazon, Netflix
- Intel, AMD, NVIDIA
- And many more...
Technical Advantages
AV1 achieves its compression efficiency through:
- Larger block sizes: Up to 128x128 pixels for better prediction
- More prediction modes: 56+ intra prediction modes
- Advanced transforms: Multiple transform types for different content
- Film grain synthesis: Preserves film grain without encoding it
AV1 Adoption
AV1 is rapidly being adopted across the industry:
- YouTube serves AV1 to compatible devices
- Netflix uses AV1 for mobile streaming
- All major browsers support AV1
- New hardware includes AV1 decode/encode