Google sparks controversy after confirming AV1 will become the new default

Google sparks controversy after confirming AV1 will become the new default

  • @[email protected]English
    26•1 month ago

    That’s going to get them a lot of complaints about choppy playback and high battery usage from anyone without a hardware AV1 decoder.

    They should only enable it by default if the device has a hardware AV1 decoder.

      • circuitfarmerEnglish
        14•1 month ago

        Yeah. This seems a bit quick given the adoption of hardware decoders. I would have thought they would have waited a while longer before actually changing the default.

        The benefits are real, though. AV1 is extremely efficient and it looks markedly better than alternatives even at lower bitrates.

      • @[email protected]English
        7•1 month ago

        You obviously need an AV1 hardware decoder to do hardware decoding of AV1. The GPUs you listed are the only ones with a builtin AV1 hardware decoder on the PC, though that list is also out of date. There are also multiple smartphone SoCs from Mediatek and Qualcomm that have an integrated AV1 hardware decoder. This is also not in any way an indicator for the level of hardware needed to do software decoding of AV1.

        • @[email protected]English
          7•1 month ago

          Not everyone buys a new phone every 1 or 2 years, so there are still lots of phones in use without AV1 hardware decode.

          • @[email protected]English
            2•1 month ago

            I know. I’m not saying that this is a sound decision, just that quote doesn’t really represent the current situation.

    • BrikoXOPMEnglish
      6•1 month ago

      That would require not only storing the video in every resolution, but also in both codecs for every resolution. By going with AV1, they’re trying to reduce the cost of storage and bandwidth, not double it.

      • AggressivelyPassiveEnglish
        14•1 month ago

        YouTube has exactly one purpose: playing videos. If the technology they’re trying to use can’t achieve that, the technology isn’t ready, simple as that.

        AV1 won’t magically reduce storage by 90%, it’s a marginal improvement.

      • @[email protected]English
        8•1 month ago

        Youtube already stores every video in H.264 and VP9, with some videos also being encoded in AV1. They aren’t removing support for other codecs yet, they are just making AV1 the default.