The AV2 Video Standard Has Released (Final v1.0 Specification)

Based on AV1's trajectory, hardware encode isn't necessary (though it is nice). The current encoder is a reference encoder. Now that the spec is finalized, expect significant speed improvements from production encoders (realtime likely won't happen until we get it in hardware though)

That's fine and not anything new for codecs, they always take a long time before mass adoption.

Take a look at AV1 itself, you can't even say it's really ubiquitous on all hardware. It's quite well along in adoption compared to early days, but some mobile devices are still lacking hardware acceleration for it.

> The biggest thing it does add though is multi-stream support

I would have thought this would be a part of the container format rather than the video codec?

The way things are going, we can pretty much forget about AV2 hardware encoders in PCs anytime soon. All the newest, best chip capacity is being completely hogged by Apple and AI companies.

Unless chipmakers port the AV2 design to older, cheaper nodes, it’s just not happening for average users. We’ll probably see some Chinese TV chip makers throw in an AV2 decoder just to check a box, but as an actual encoder? I wouldn't count on it anytime soon.

> The biggest thing it does add though is multi-stream support

This was supported in H.264 MVC but only saw real use for 3D movies on physical BluRays. With almost no content available outside that.

Looking at how GPU development has been sidetracked for NPU, I worry that this is 2035 target at best. Manufacturers will push for maximising matrix operation silicon area. In the era of trillion dollar investments into datacenters, traffic cost is afterthought. The only benefitors might be YouTube, Netflix and such, but on their scale investment into ISP level caches might be cheaper.

In HW accelerated chips, what part of the calculations they usually accelerate? Could it be possible to repurpose old HW?

> The biggest thing it does add though is multi-stream support, which will be a big win for VR and live sports.

AV1 supports it too ?

I feel like in 2030 it's more likely that we send 480p and just upscale with ai on the other end

> enabling high-quality video delivery at significantly lower bitrates

> likely will remain so til ~2028 when the first av2 hardware accelerated chips start dropping

This might sound dumb, but whats the point if its intended for slower devices, but those slower devices don't even exist yet?

Where do you see information about the efficiency gains over AV1?

Does anyone know what is so costly to calculate in AV2?

>........I'd say that AV2 isn't worth it.

Unless they have hardware encoder and decoder design done in parallel, otherwise it would be 2028 before a hardware block design is done and 2030 for the earliest product to ship with it. In reality I think 2031 or 2032 is more likely.

And I have been saying the same for quite some time that 20-30% for a generational codec improvement isn't worth it. I think they originally aimed at 50%, and then 40% and then 30%.

I feel like these encoders that require acceleration are a big reason why good hardware obsoletes so quickly.

AVIF is for sure my favorite image format right now. No other format has the quadfecta of lossless, HDR, transparency, browser support. Plus as you said, for very compressed images it looks amazing. It blows my mind how small AVIF files can be. Also, unlike HEIC and Ultra HDR JPEG, it actually supports HDR natively as part of the file format rather than doing the hacky sidecar gain map trick. I know it doesn't matter to everyone, but I just love HDR and AVIF is the only format that I feel like really takes it seriously.

Honestly AVIF2 is the last thing we need now. There are way too many minority image formats already.

Not always https://tonisagrista.com/blog/2023/jpegxl-vs-avif/

Maybe libavif will pick up AV2 support, so all one needs to do is update it to v2.0.0 or something and bam! Extra efficiency!

People have been saying this for decades now.

I've never understood why some people seem to cheer this on like a corporation owning some maths was their local sports team.

For a while I assumed some people had put in a lot of effort on H.264 encoders and so the digital sharecroppers were angry and jealous that someone might be advocating for messy freedom.

But some people seem to just enjoy the thought of corporations putting a tax on video distribution.

Luckily those greedy corporations have repeatedly shot themselves on the foot and so their influence is waning.

How long has it been since AV1 was released? About eight years, and there's still no credible patent holder. The vultures are always circling around compression standards. You shouldn't take that too seriously. Even if a lawsuit is filed, there's a legal defence fund to protect against baseless claims.

> People keep calling the AV-family codecs “royalty free,” but in practice they increasingly look like a legal and financial gamble.

And the alternative is… ?

For H.265 there are two HEVC licensing pools you have to sign with plus at least two non-pool companies:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Efficiency_Video_Coding#P...

Going with a non-AVx codec is no less complicated and fraught with lawsuit risk AFAICT.

> in practice they increasingly look like a legal and financial gamble

As opposed to what, like HEVC? Where you need to pay 3 different patent pools to be sure (which all has different terms), then there's still other patent holders that aren't in any pools and come and hit you with loyalty requests any time under terms however they like to?

There should be a stronger push to fight these trolls. AOM has enough resources to bust their garbage patents and make them pay damages for patent racketeering. At least until software patents are banned for good.

It should be not possible to patent communication standards. The opportunity for abuse through lock-in effects is just too big.

My 10 year old iPhone 7 can play 1080p AV1 video in software for more than 200 minutes with VLC. The iPhone 7 was released a year and a half before AV1 was.

So I think it's a safe bet the current Apple TV devices are capable of playing AV1 video in software. There's a VLC release for Apple TV:

https://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-appletv.html

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vlc-media-player/id650377962?p...

Outside the apple ecosystem, AV1 is supported nearly everywhere.

Last update seems to be "lawsuit was filed" with zero updates since then. That stuff tends to move slowly.

Dolby's patents are garbage, and they know it. They managed to patent entropy coding somehow. This will not stand to challenges, and they managed to poke a well-resourced company.

This will always happen. There are just some entities that can't stand not seeking rent.

It will probably depend on whether NPUs are universally available in smartphones, and whether we get a standard API for accessing NPUs. But I don't know whether AI-based codecs can have battery usage competitive with fixed-function hardware.

It was difficult to find a nice name, with av2 :(

It works in French d2vid (Deuvid)