AV1 hardware decoder implementations

[Spyros]

This is the first Snapdragon chip to include support for AV1, a royalty-free video codec backed by a huge list of heavy-hitters like Amazon, Apple, Arm, Facebook, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, Nvidia, and Samsung. Netflix and YouTube have gone all-in on AV1 by making support for the codec mandatory for hardware manufacturers seeking to license these services.

Ars Technica

Qualcomm also finally enabled AV1 video decoding – streams up to 8K at 60fps (with HDR) are supported.

GSMArena

Finally!

[Gravitator]

[Beelzebubu]

The interesting part is their "statement": https://www.qualcomm.com/content/dam...-Statement.pdf

“Qualcomm is a leader in foundational video compression technology. For over 20 years, we
have invented technology widely used in video codecs implemented and used by devices and content
services. Our patent portfolio is used in multiple codecs and includes standard essential patents to
H.265/HEVC, H.266/VVC, and MPEG-5/EVC video coding standards, as well as the proprietary VP9 and
AV1 video codecs.
Regarding the Alliance for Open Media (AOM) Patent License 1.0, Qualcomm has not accepted the
unilateral terms asserted by AOM with respect to Qualcomm’s intellectual property and has notified
AOM of this position. Qualcomm reserves all its intellectual property rights, including with respect to
the use of any of Qualcomm’s patented technology to implement any AOM specification.”

[soresu]

Sounds like a coded excuse for being the near last to the party while promoting their own proprietary stuff that will never take off (aka EVC).

Also sounds like they are using this as a pretext to support the AV1 patent pool SisVel - how slimy of them.

[hajj_3]

Originally Posted by soresu

Sounds like a coded excuse for being the near last to the party while promoting their own proprietary stuff that will never take off (aka EVC).

Also sounds like they are using this as a pretext to support the AV1 patent pool SisVel - how slimy of them.

They are not currently listed as a patent owner on the sisvel website. I wonder whether they will join sisvel and list their patents on there.

[benwaggoner]

Originally Posted by soresu

Sounds like a coded excuse for being the near last to the party while promoting their own proprietary stuff that will never take off (aka EVC).

Are they (or anyone) actively promoting EVC? I haven't heard anything about any sorts of real-world EVC deployment plans all year.

EVC has an interesting model and promising elements, but no one seems to be promoting it for anything.

[tormento]

Microsoft Adds Direct3D 12 Powered AV1 Video Encoding To Mesa

[quietvoid]

Turns out that while Amazon fixed film grain synthesis on the FireTV Stick 4K Max, it still doesn't work in Dolby Vision mode.
So now SDR, HDR10 are fine but not AV1 Dolby Vision.

[Blue_MiSfit]

They're streaming AV1 Dolby Vision? Interesting! Ben, is that accurate?

[quietvoid]

Originally Posted by Blue_MiSfit

They're streaming AV1 Dolby Vision? Interesting! Ben, is that accurate?

No one is streaming AV1 Dolby Vision just yet..
But the files can be made and they play in Dolby Vision on the devices I tested.

Just annoying that FGS isn't working. It works on my LG C2.

[benwaggoner]

Originally Posted by quietvoid

No one is streaming AV1 Dolby Vision just yet..
But the files can be made and they play in Dolby Vision on the devices I tested.

Just annoying that FGS isn't working. It works on my LG C2.

AV1 without FGS really isn't that much better than HEVC Main10.

Dolby isn't really supporting AV1 (they've got control over a whole lot of VVC licensing), so trying to get end-to-end AV1 working for Profile 5 or something without Dolby's help would be some serious upstream swimming. The dynamic range adjusting Y'CtCp native encoding requires some encoder tuning for optimum results.

Doing a Profile 8.1 style HDR10-with-metadata would be a lot more straightforward, as no encoder work would be required, or even helpful.

[quietvoid]

Originally Posted by benwaggoner

AV1 without FGS really isn't that much better than HEVC Main10.

Hence why it's annoying that the feature isn't working on my FireTV Stick 4K Max.

It's a bit hard to believe that Dolby went through the effort to make it work on 2021+ devices but that they don't plan on supporting AV1.
It's probably bound to happen eventually, but maybe VVC is higher priority.

Guess time will tell.

[benwaggoner]

Originally Posted by quietvoid

Hence why it's annoying that the feature isn't working on my FireTV Stick 4K Max.

It's a bit hard to believe that Dolby went through the effort to make it work on 2021+ devices but that they don't plan on supporting AV1.
It's probably bound to happen eventually, but maybe VVC is higher priority.

Dolby will make licensing revenue with VVC, and VVC is technically superior to AV1, so I can see lots of reasons they'd prefer to skip over AV1.

But we will see. IBC shall reveal much.

[hajj_3]

iphone 15 has an AV1 hardware decoder:

[birdie]

Originally Posted by hajj_3

iphone 15 has an AV1 hardware decoder:

And weirdly no VVC decoder. Apple is one of the patent holders for it.

[benwaggoner]

Originally Posted by birdie

And weirdly no VVC decoder. Apple is one of the patent holders for it.

VVC is still a lot newer. We'll see some living room devices with HW decoders this year, but I don't know about any mobile until 2024.

[Blue_MiSfit]

I was pleasantly surprised to see this! Too bad it's decode-only, but that's enough to dramatically move the landscape forward, especially considering they'll probably have to add a software decode fallback to all their devices

[ksec]

The interesting part is that Apple are following the same route as Qualcomm, in that AV1 will be decoding only.

Considering the A17 Pro Silicon design needs to be ready by mid 2022, And the hardware verification and testing kit for VVC were barely out so it shouldn't be surprising they dont come with it.

Next year, Apple will likely have a new updated A17 on a newer 3nm node with A18 on a newer 3nm as well. We could expect some Video Encoding and Decoding Engine update then.

[hajj_3]

Originally Posted by ksec

The interesting part is that Apple are following the same route as Qualcomm, in that AV1 will be decoding only.

there's no point in AV1 encode. It won't be much better than the h265 encoder but will take up die space.

[Emulgator]

And such encoding will eat battery to an extent that mobile devices won't afford.