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AV1 is Well On Its Way To Becoming a Viable Alternative To Patented Video Codecs, Mozilla Says (mozilla.org)
Here's a surprising fact: It costs money to watch video online, even on free sites like YouTube. That's because about 4 in 5 videos on the web today rely on a patented technology called the H.264 video codec. From a report: It took years for companies to put this complex, global set of legal and business agreements in place, so H.264 web video works everywhere. Now, as the industry shifts to using more efficient video codecs, those businesses are picking and choosing which next-generation technologies they will support. The fragmentation in the market is raising concerns about whether our favorite web past-time, watching videos, will continue to be accessible and affordable to all.
Over the last decade, several companies started building viable alternatives to patented video codecs. Mozilla worked on the Daala Project, Google released VP9, and Cisco created Thor for low-complexity videoconferencing. All these efforts had the same goal: to create a next-generation video compression technology that would make sharing high-quality video over the internet faster, more reliable, and less expensive. In 2015, Mozilla, Google, Cisco, and others joined with Amazon and Netflix and hardware vendors AMD, ARM, Intel, and NVIDIA to form AOMedia. As AOMedia grew, efforts to create an open video format coalesced around a new codec: AV1. AV1 is based largely on Google's VP9 code and incorporates tools and technologies from Daala, Thor, and VP10.
Mozilla loves AV1 for two reasons: AV1 is royalty-free, so anyone can use it free of charge. Software companies can use it to build video streaming into their applications. Web developers can build their own video players for their sites. The second reason we love AV1 is that it delivers better compression technology than even high-efficiency codecs -- about 30% better, according to a Moscow State University study.
Over the last decade, several companies started building viable alternatives to patented video codecs. Mozilla worked on the Daala Project, Google released VP9, and Cisco created Thor for low-complexity videoconferencing. All these efforts had the same goal: to create a next-generation video compression technology that would make sharing high-quality video over the internet faster, more reliable, and less expensive. In 2015, Mozilla, Google, Cisco, and others joined with Amazon and Netflix and hardware vendors AMD, ARM, Intel, and NVIDIA to form AOMedia. As AOMedia grew, efforts to create an open video format coalesced around a new codec: AV1. AV1 is based largely on Google's VP9 code and incorporates tools and technologies from Daala, Thor, and VP10.
Mozilla loves AV1 for two reasons: AV1 is royalty-free, so anyone can use it free of charge. Software companies can use it to build video streaming into their applications. Web developers can build their own video players for their sites. The second reason we love AV1 is that it delivers better compression technology than even high-efficiency codecs -- about 30% better, according to a Moscow State University study.
That was an interesting post by the founder of MPEG. He assumes that the rise of AOM will mean the end of video codec advancement because no on will be making money on codecs. He's completely and horribly wrong on that assumption. There is no longer a need to make money on the codec, the major content providers that provide video to the public have a massive incentive to continue to improve codecs because it literally costs them money. Google, Netflix, Apple, Facebook etc all save money if the Codec improves, and those savings can be multiples more than the licensing fees MPEG-LA collects.
The need for MPEG and MPEG-LA is over. HEVC should be a dead standard. The rise of AOM and AVC1 is a blessing to all of humanity. A free codec, developed and supported by the very people broadcasting and producing all the video. The very people with the largest incentive to continue to improve the codec because every byte saved saves them money.
MPEG and MPEG-LA should wander off into the night, they simply aren't needed anymore and have been destroyed by the same patents they sought to exploit.
What's really sad is that the patent pools are so packed with greed that they'd rather crap their pants and die an ignoble death than offer a better deal. They will not be missed.
Can anyone explain why all the players in broadcast TV aren't pushing to have the next-generation broadcast TV standards (ATSC and DVB-T and stuff) using AV1 instead of H.265/HEVC as the replacement for MPEG2 and MPEG4/H.264?
Because the bitstream was codified in the last couple of months.
Maybe future standards will have it, but it was unavailable until 2018.
It's only just reached 1.0 and the encoding time of the codec is mind blowingly slow. It makes encoding HEVC look extremely fast.
I'm praying that AV1 takes off in a big big way, I like the idea of a superior codec, saving me disk space and being open source and free, my inner PC hippie is into that.
I don't know if it does every single feature HEVC or 264 does mind you, it might be crap at 10bit or 12bit or something, I just don't know, but my understanding is, it's fairly good.
None the less, it's not going to be replacing anything for several years. You need to wait multiple generations for smartphones, tablets, laptops, PCs, TVs and god knows what else to have new AV1 capable chips in them. Plus the encoder needs obvious, intense optimisation. Honestly the litmus test is when the piracy teams (or at least a few hardcore anime groups) start using the codec.
When I can replace some of my stuff on my NAS, with something at least 33% smaller and identical or better quality, I'm much more interested.
I do wish them well and I hope these hype articles continue, but patience will be a virtue here.
So, I provide a link that literally shows how to encode alpha channel in VP8. Which I personally use quite a bit for lower thirds overlays. And all you do is push your head a little further up your ass... I can see why this whole codec adoption issue is such an uphill battle.