https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/ne...av1-codec.html
Netflix starts streaming content to TVs though AV1 codec
by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 11/11/2021 09:41 AM | source: netflixtechblog | 2 comment(s)
Netflix starts streaming content to TVs though AV1 codec
Netflix has begun broadcasting content that has been encoded with the AV1 codec. In this case, it is specifically about streaming to televisions and not smartphones.
AV1 is the first high-efficiency video codec format with a royalty-free license from Alliance of Open Media (AOMedia), made possible by wide-ranging industry commitment of expertise and resources. Netflix is proud to be a founding member of AOMedia and a key contributor to the development of AV1. The specification of AV1 was published in 2018. Since then, we have been working hard to bring AV1 streaming to Netflix members. Netflix said that all of its AV1 streams are encoded in 10-bit and in the highest available resolution and frame rate including HFR – but not yet HDR. Netflix did not specify bitrates other than saying that "AV1 delivers videos with improved visual quality at the same bitrate" compared to MPEG4 and HEVC and that "some streams have a peak bitrate close to the upper limit allowed by the spec", which probably refers to AV1 level 5.0 (30 Mb/s bitrate for Main) or level 5.1 (40 Mb/s bitrate for Main).
- "Today we are excited to announce that Netflix has started streaming AV1 to TVs. With this advanced encoding format, we are confident that Netflix can deliver an even more amazing experience to our members," Netflix wrote in a blog post. "We compared AV1 to other codecs over thousands of Netflix titles, and saw significant compression efficiency improvements from AV1."
In February 2020, Netflix started streaming AV1 to the Android mobile app. The Android launch leveraged the open-source software decoder dav1d built by the VideoLAN, VLC, and FFmpeg communities and sponsored by AOMedia. We were very pleased to see that AV1 streaming improved members’ viewing experience, particularly under challenging network conditions.
While software decoders enable AV1 playback for more powerful devices, a majority of Netflix members enjoy their favorite shows on TVs. AV1 playback on TV platforms relies on hardware solutions, which generally take longer to be deployed.
Throughout 2020 the industry made impressive progress on AV1 hardware solutions. Semiconductor companies announced decoder SoCs for a range of consumer electronics applications. TV manufacturers released TVs ready for AV1 streaming. Netflix has also partnered with YouTube to develop an open-source solution for an AV1 decoder on game consoles that utilizes the additional power of GPUs. It is amazing to witness the rapid growth of the ecosystem in such a short time.
Today we are excited to announce that Netflix has started streaming AV1 to TVs. With this advanced encoding format, we are confident that Netflix can deliver an even more amazing experience to our members. In this techblog, we share some details about our efforts for this launch as well as the benefits we foresee for our members.